Recovering Six Figures in Wrongly Paid Tariffs

A swimear brand had been paying IEEPA tariffs on shipments from China, Cambodia, Peru, and India since the tariffs took effect in 2025. Like most importers they are absorbing the cost, with no real way to know how much of it might eventually come back.

When the Supreme Court ruled in February 2026 that the IEEPA tariffs had never been lawfully authorized, it opened a refund window, but CBP didn't make the process automatic or simple. The money was gated behind a maze of entry statuses (unliquidated vs. finally liquidated), a multi-phase refund tool most importers had never heard of, and deadlines that were closing in real time as entries aged past the point of eligibility.

It got more complicated from there. Not every duty line the brand had paid was actually an IEEPA tariff. Some were Section 301, a different statute entirely, untouched by the ruling. Telling the two apart meant a line-by-line read of 22 entries' HTS codes, not something their team or its freight forwarder was equipped to do quickly, or at all.

Our Approach

Diagnosed account access before filing anything. The importer subaccount wasn't visible under the brand's CBP account and ACH wasn't on file, a gap we caught and fixed in the first two weeks, not discovered against a deadline.

Classified every entry line by line. We reviewed all entries individually, separating IEEPA-recoverable duty from non-recoverable Section 301 duty, so they knew exactly what was in play before a single claim went in.

Filed fast, and made a deliberate call to hold where it mattered. We submitted every CAPE Phase 1–eligible entry immediately, then advised against paying two brokers to file formal protests on the already-liquidated entries, a call that avoided $4,500–$12,500 in fees and contingency costs, and was later validated when CBP's own court filings confirmed those protests wouldn't have moved the money anyway.

Tracked the claim through CBP's shifting phases and gave the brand a straight answer at every turn, including telling them plainly when a phase wouldn't reach their remaining balance, instead of letting the ambiguity sit.

The Outcome

• $187,196 recovered and refunding, with zero broker contingency fees taken against it
• First cash in hand within a month of filing, $10,448.17 landed July 7
• A clear, defined path for the remaining $114,466 stuck behind a CBP liquidation rule, now with counsel for a CIT filing decision
• $45,376 in non-eligible Section 301 duty correctly identified and excluded, no rejected claims, no overpromising
• Full visibility into which entries are open, why, and what happens next, instead of a black box

Izba turned a maze of CBP statuses and closing deadlines into a clear recovery plan and got the client paid while doing it.