Source: The Dispatch
by Scott Lincicome
“[T]he law requires the government to return illegally exacted taxes; the Trump administration promised the courts that it would quickly refund any tariffs ultimately invalidated; and the ideal tariff refund system would be fast and automatic, with the government proactively returning collected duties to all importers that paid them. Sure, there would be some edge cases that required additional paperwork and bickering, but most refunds could be handled this way. In fact, CBP has issued big, automatic tariff refunds on multiple occasions and does smaller ones every day. CAPE is far from this ideal and will inevitably allow the government to keep billions in illegally collected tariffs.” (04/30/26)
https://thedispatch.com/newsletter/dispatch-markets/tariff-refunds-importers-consumers-taxpayers/