A comprehensive guide to recovering overpaid duties through the CBP protest process under 19 USC 1514.
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977 grants the President authority to regulate commerce during a declared national emergency. In 2025, this authority was invoked to impose sweeping tariffs on imports from multiple countries, with rates ranging from 10% to 145% depending on the country of origin. These tariffs — often called "reciprocal tariffs" — were applied on top of existing duties under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), dramatically increasing costs for U.S. importers.
Unlike Section 301 tariffs (targeting unfair trade practices) or Section 232 tariffs (national security), IEEPA tariffs were imposed under emergency economic powers. This distinction is critical because the legal challenge that ultimately reached the Supreme Court focused specifically on whether IEEPA grants the President authority to impose tariffs — a power traditionally reserved for Congress under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.
In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of IEEPA to impose tariffs exceeded the scope of the statute. The Court held that IEEPA authorizes the President to block transactions and freeze assets during national emergencies, but does not grant the power to impose duties on imports — a fundamentally different economic mechanism. The ruling declared all tariffs imposed under IEEPA authority to be unlawful from their inception.
This ruling has massive implications for importers. Because the tariffs were unlawful from the start, every dollar paid in IEEPA-specific duties is potentially recoverable. The ruling does not affect tariffs imposed under other authorities such as Section 301 (China trade practices), Section 232 (steel and aluminum), or standard HTS rates. Only the IEEPA surcharge component is refundable.
The formal mechanism for recovering overpaid duties is a CBP protest filed under 19 USC 1514. A protest is a legal filing that challenges a decision by U.S. Customs and Border Protection regarding the classification, valuation, or rate of duty applied to imported goods. Here is how the process works:
Review your import history to identify all entries where IEEPA tariffs were assessed. Each entry has a unique entry number, entry date, and liquidation date. You need to gather entry summaries (CBP Form 7501), commercial invoices, bills of lading, and proof of duty payment for each affected shipment.
For each entry, calculate the IEEPA-specific duty component. This requires separating the IEEPA surcharge from any baseline HTS duties, Section 301 tariffs, or Section 232 tariffs that may also apply. The refund amount is only the IEEPA portion. For example, if you imported goods with a 5% HTS rate, a 25% Section 301 rate, and a 34% IEEPA rate, only the 34% IEEPA component is refundable.
The protest is filed on CBP Form 19, which requires detailed information about the entry, the specific decision being protested, the legal basis for the protest (the Supreme Court ruling), and the amount of refund claimed. The form must be filed at the port of entry where the goods were originally processed.
Attach copies of entry summaries, proof of payment, a calculation worksheet showing the IEEPA duty component, and a legal brief citing the Supreme Court decision. Thorough documentation significantly reduces the chance of CBP requesting additional information, which can delay your refund by months.
CBP has 2 years to act on a protest. In practice, given the volume of expected filings and the clear legal precedent, processing times may vary. You can check the status of your protest through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) portal or by contacting the port where you filed.
The most critical deadline in this process is the 180-day protest window. Under 19 USC 1514(c)(3), a protest must be filed within 180 days of the date of liquidation of the entry. Liquidation is the final computation of duties by CBP, which typically occurs 300–314 days after the entry date but can vary. If you miss the 180-day window for any entry, you lose the right to protest that entry permanently — no extensions, no exceptions.
Because the window is per-entry (not a single deadline), importers with many shipments face a rolling set of deadlines. Early entries may already be approaching their deadline, while more recent entries have time remaining. Prioritizing your highest-value entries is essential if you cannot file all protests simultaneously.
Critical: The 180-day clock runs from the liquidation date, not the entry date or the Supreme Court ruling date. Check your ACE account or entry summaries for the actual liquidation date of each entry.
A complete CBP protest filing requires the following documentation for each entry:
Missing any of these documents can result in CBP issuing a Request for Information (RFI), which pauses the protest timeline and can delay your refund by 30–90 days. Ensuring completeness at the time of filing is the single most important step you can take to accelerate your refund.
The refund calculation requires isolating the IEEPA tariff component from the total duties assessed on each entry. The formula is straightforward but requires careful attention to the tariff schedule:
| Component | Example Rate | Refundable? |
|---|---|---|
| HTS baseline duty | 2.5% | No |
| Section 301 tariff | 25% | No |
| Section 232 tariff | 25% | No |
| IEEPA reciprocal tariff | 34% | Yes |
Multiply the declared customs value of each entry by the IEEPA rate that was applied. Sum across all affected entries to get your total refund amount. For importers with hundreds or thousands of entries, this calculation can be extremely time-consuming when done manually.
RefundAssist by NormSuite was built specifically to handle the complexity of IEEPA tariff refund claims at scale. The platform automates every step of the process:
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Yes. Following the Supreme Court ruling that declared IEEPA tariffs unconstitutional, importers who paid these duties can file a CBP protest under 19 USC 1514 to recover the overpaid amounts. You must file within 180 days of the liquidation date for each entry.
You have 180 days from the date of liquidation of each entry to file a protest with CBP. This is a per-entry deadline, not a single flat date, so different entries will have different filing deadlines.
The 180-day protest window is the period under 19 USC 1514 during which an importer can formally challenge a CBP decision, including the assessment of duties. The clock starts on the date CBP liquidates (finalizes) each entry.
Your refund amount equals the IEEPA-specific duties you paid on affected entries. This varies based on the tariff rates applied (10%–145%), the declared value of goods, and the country of origin. RefundAssist calculates your exact refund based on your entry data.
RefundAssist by NormSuite automates the entire IEEPA tariff refund process. It calculates your refund amount, generates CBP protest documents compliant with 19 CFR 174, tracks your 180-day deadlines, and organizes supporting documentation.
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