U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has officially launched the CAPE Claims Portal, enabling importers and customs brokers to submit requests for refunds of IEEPA tariffs. As of April 20, 2026, the portal is live and accepting CAPE Declarations, which are required to initiate the IEEPA tariff refund process.
Many importers have already submitted their CAPE Phase 1 claims and are now wondering what comes next. While the process largely depends on CBP and Treasury completing their reviews, there are still steps you can take in the meantime—such as tracking your submissions and ensuring a clear understanding of your data. If you haven’t yet filed your CAPE Declaration and are a Laufer Customs Brokerage customer, please reach out to your Laufer team for guidance and assistance with next steps.
Important Dates and Timelines:
- CAPE Claims Portal began accepting declarations as refund requests on April 20, 2026
- The Portal is currently only open for Phase 1 claims
- There is currently no deadline to submit Phase 1 claims
- No launch date or details have been announced yet for Phase 2 or any subsequent phases
- Importers who submitted Phase 1 claims on April 20th, which contained already liquidated entries could begin seeing ACH refunds as soon as May 11th
- Unliquidated entries submitted on Phase 1 claims will liquidate after 45 days and refunds can be expected via ACH within 60-90 days of the CAPE declaration filing date
- CBP will provide the Court of International Trade (CIT) with another update on the status of CAPE on May 12th
My CAPE Declaration has been Submitted: How do I Track my Accepted Entries and Pending Refund?
To help the trade community prepare and monitor CAPE declaration submissions, CBP has provided multiple ACE Reports. These reports provide additional visibility to entries accepted on CAPE Declarations – allowing the submitting party to track refund status.
- ES-022: CAPE Entry Summary Report
- This report links CAPE declaration, entry, and refund numbers to help track the refund process and displays refund amounts separated by principal and interest.
- REV-603: Trade Refund Report
- This report enables trade users to track CAPE declarations that have one of the following “Refund Secondary Statuses” after the refund is received by Treasury.
- Sent to Treasury – This status indicates that Treasury has received an approved refund claim.
- Treasury Issued – This status indicates that a refund has been issued.
- Funds Diverted – This status indicates that funds have been diverted for an existing bill. Diversion occurs after liquidation of the entry summary, before the refund is issued.
- Check/ACH Returned – This status occurs when refunds are rejected due to incomplete ACH Refund enrollment.
- For help running this report, review the ACE Reports Trade Refund Report Quick Reference Card (QRC).
- This report enables trade users to track CAPE declarations that have one of the following “Refund Secondary Statuses” after the refund is received by Treasury.
- REV-613: ACH Rejected Refunds Report
- This report provides information on refunds that have been rejected due to incomplete ACH Refund enrollment. For help running this report, review the ACE Reports Trade Refund Report Quick Reference Card (QRC).
- For more information about rejected refunds, review CBP’s Replacement Refund Instructions.
- REV-615: CAPE Details Refunds Report
- Building on the REV-603 report, this report provides entry summary-level details associated with CAPE declarations that have been sent to Treasury.
ACE Reports Tips
- Save Time by Scheduling Reports: To minimize processing time, CBP encourages the trade community to schedule recurring reports and get results delivered to an email inbox. For more information, review the Schedule a Report reference guide.
- Use ACE Reports to Identify “4811 Notify Parties”: The following data elements can be added to Entry Summary (ES) reports to identify notify party information:
- CF 4811 Notify Party Name
- CF 4811 Notify Party Number
My CAPE Declaration has been Submitted: How do I handle Rejects and Errors?
Entries may be rejected and removed from a CAPE Declaration for a variety of reasons. Viewing the CSV file of your CAPE Submission (by clicking on the claim number hyperlink) will give you visibility at the entry level to what was accepted and rejected. Most importantly, this report provides error codes telling you why the entry was kicked out of your CAPE Claim.
This provides excellent data for review and management of necessary next steps:
- Entries rejected from a claim because of ineligibility for Phase 1 should be tracked carefully and held for subsequent Phase submission (when available)
- Entries rejected for other reasons should be reviewed on an individual basis, allowing you to take action to make corrections and resubmit as soon as possible
Using reports to maintain visibility of monies moving through the refund process and what’s ‘stuck’ is crucial to ensure your refund total does not dwindle due to oversight during the refund claim submission process.
You can revisit our earlier client alerts for a more detailed explanation of IEEPA refunds and the process here:
Client Advisory 03.13.26: IEEPA Tariff Refund Portal is Coming
Client Advisory 04.13.26: CAPE Refunds Portal is Launching Next Week
Client Advisory 04.23.26: The CAPE Refunds Portal is LIVE!
The Laufer Group team will continue to monitor these changes and provide updates on any significant developments.
Please contact your local customer service or sales representative for additional information and service options and continue to visit laufer.com for more market Insights.