Your customs broker probably can file your IEEPA tariff refund claim. That's the good news. What most brokers won't tell you — not because they're being dishonest, but because it's easy to overlook — is that the CAPE portal gives everyone exactly one attempt, and a meaningful share of first-time filings fail outright.
If your customs broker has told you not to worry — that they'll handle your tariff refund claim, no need to think about it further — that's probably true, as far as it goes. Brokers licensed under 19 U.S.C. § 1641 do have real legal authority to file a CAPE Declaration on your behalf, and for a straightforward import history, that may genuinely be all you need.
But "can file" and "will get it right" are two different questions. Before you hand over the fate of your entire refund claim, there's a legal and practical limitation worth understanding first — one that has nothing to do with whether your broker is competent or trustworthy, and everything to do with how the CAPE system itself is built.
Your broker's authority to file a CAPE Declaration on your behalf covers Phase 1 entries — unliquidated entries, or those within 80 days of liquidation — and Phase 2 entries, your reconciliation entries. For these entries, and only these, your broker can act on your behalf under CAPE.
If you don't have any Phase 3 entries — finally liquidated ones, which make up roughly 7% of the total refund pool nationally, though your own share could be higher depending on when you imported — and your import history isn't especially complex, going the broker route is probably fine.
Where it gets serious is what happens if something goes wrong along the way.
Here's the part that matters most, and the part almost nobody leads with: the CAPE portal is a one-shot deal. If a declaration is rejected — for something as small as a formatting error in the CSV file, a missing bank detail, or one wrong entry number — there is no revision process available.
You don't get to fix the error and resubmit through CAPE. The whole declaration is rejected. Not delayed — rejected. That entry's portion of the refund is then permanently forfeited, with no path to refile.
This isn't a rare edge case. There is currently a roughly 37% industry-wide failure rate on first-time submissions through CBP's CAPE portal. That figure isn't intended to alarm you — it's publicly reported industry data. The point isn't that filing is dangerous. The point is that speed isn't what should be prioritized here. Getting it right the first time is.
Before you authorize anyone — your existing broker included — to submit your CAPE declaration, ask them directly: how many of these have you actually filed, and what's your first-submission success rate?
A broker with real experience in this exact process will answer clearly and specifically. A vague answer, or reassurance without a number attached, tells you something too — not necessarily that they're being dishonest, but that this may be new territory for them as well. And because CAPE gives everyone exactly one attempt, that's not the kind of process you want anyone learning on the job, using your claim as the practice run.
No upfront cost. The process is handled by experienced US legal teams.
Check My EligibilityYour broker can genuinely help with the most straightforward parts of your refund claim — this isn't an argument against using them. But the CAPE portal only gives everyone one chance to get it right, and getting it right matters more than getting it done quickly. Before you give the go-ahead, ask exactly how many of these your broker has actually filed, and what their success rate is. If they can't answer clearly, that's worth pausing on.
If you imported goods subject to IEEPA tariffs between February 2025 and February 2026, you likely have a legitimate claim. Filing windows are closing — the right first step is an independent, complete assessment of your full import history, not just the entries that happen to be easiest to process, so you know now whether an attorney is needed to recover everything you're owed.
And if you've already filed — regardless of how that filing was handled — there's also a way to get a cash advance on your refund within 5–10 business days, rather than waiting months or years.
Can a customs broker file my IEEPA tariff refund?
Yes, for Phase 1 and Phase 2 entries — brokers have legal authority under 19 U.S.C. § 1641 to file CAPE declarations for unliquidated entries, those within 80 days of liquidation, and reconciliation entries.
What happens if a CAPE declaration is rejected?
In most cases, the affected entries cannot be resubmitted. CAPE is a one-shot filing system — a rejected declaration typically means the refund opportunity for those entries is permanently forfeited.
How common are CAPE filing errors?
Publicly reported industry data puts the first-submission failure rate at roughly 37% industry-wide, making filing accuracy more important than filing speed.
What should I ask my broker before they file my claim?
Ask exactly how many CAPE declarations they've actually filed, and what their first-submission success rate is. A vague or reassuring-but-unspecific answer is itself worth noting.
What entries can't my broker recover?
Finally liquidated entries — Phase 3 — require litigation through the Court of International Trade, which only a licensed customs attorney can file. This affects roughly 7% of total IEEPA refund value population-wide, though an individual importer's share may be higher.