Tariff refund portal off to bumpy start as some businesses report glitches

Some businesses experienced problems accessing the U.S. government’s new tariff refund portal after the system launched on Monday. 

Rick Woldenberg, CEO of educational toy maker Learning Resources, told CBS News he received an error message when the company tried to file a claim for a tariff refund using the new Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, or CAPE, platform. 

“The system is currently experiencing high volume, please try again later,” the message stated.

“The system seems to have gone blinky,” said Woldenberg, whose Vernon Hills, Illinois-based company filed the 2025 lawsuit that led to the Supreme Court striking down the Trump administration’s emergency tariffs in February. “It seems like the system is overwhelmed.”

The federal agency that operates CAPE, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), told CBS News it’s looking into reports of problems using the system.

The U.S. government now owes tens of thousands of importers a total of up to $175 billion in refunds for the tariffs imposed by President Trump last year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA.

Beth Benike, co-founder of Busy Baby, a Minnesota-based maker of baby products, told CBS News that she spent more than four hours on hold with CBP over the weekend trying to resolve an issue with an account that businesses need to file tariff refund claims. 

CAPE requires importers to have an account in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), the centralized platform that Customs and Border Protection uses to process imports and exports as well as to collect tariff revenue. 

“I got an error message saying ‘Duplicate tax ID,’ which means my importer account is tied to someone else’s,” said Benike, who is seeking to submit a refund claim for $50,000 in tariffs. “CBP gave me a ticket number, but there’s been no response.”

“I can’t even get to the point where I’d receive an error message because the portal is down,” she added.

“It would be such a relief”

Shawn Phetteplace, national campaigns director for Main Street Alliance, a network of small business owners, told CBS News that some of the group’s members experienced difficulty submitting or were unable to file refund claims on Monday. 

“We are deeply disappointed that the portal seems to be having major issues,” he told CBS News, emphasizing the importance of processing tariff refunds quickly. 

“Some people went out of business. Many of our members stopped hiring and growing and experienced real and severe consequences from the chaotic [tariffs],” he told CBS News. “We need those refunds to be processed as soon as humanly possible.”

Al Fine, founder and CEO of Dame, a sexual health and wellness company, also told CBS News that she plans to submit a tariff refund claim on Monday.

“If this money comes in, it would be such a relief,” she said. “I would definitely reinvest it in Dame and bring more products to market faster.”

As of April 9, more than 56,000 U.S. importers had registered to receive refunds, according to CBP. Up to 82% of IEEPA duty payments, amounting to $127 billion, are eligible for refunds in CAPE’s initial deployment.

Only IEEPA tariffs are eligible for refunds. Initially, CAPE will accept requests for estimated tariffs, as well as those finalized by CBP within the past 80 days. The agency has said it will issue tariff refunds for valid claims within 60 to 90 days of approval, although it may take longer if claims contain errors or inaccuracies that require correction. 

Will consumers get money back?

 Some companies raised retail prices or added tariff surcharges to customers’ bills while the duties were in place, raising questions about whether consumers should also be reimbursed. 

However, many companies that paid the duties say that any price hikes didn’t fully cover their additional costs. Aaron Powell, founder of Bunch Bikes, an electric bike manufacturer, said the company’s profit margin dropped and sales shrank even after raising the cost of an e-bike from $5,799 to $6,599.

Powell also expects to face additional tariffs, given that the Trump administration has indicated that it plans to impose other levies to replace the IEEPA tariffs. Getting a refund won’t “make up the money we’ve lost,” he told CBS News. “It’s not like we’ll have so much extra cash that I can hand it out.”