The Trump administration has yet to signal when — or whether — it intends to repay tariffs implemented by executive order just over a year ago. Many businesses may wait years for reimbursement.
The U.S. Court of International Trade ruled last Wednesday that the administration must refund the tariffs, which it had been collecting under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA), starting in February of last year. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that use of IEEPA was illegal.
Weston O'Black, a partner with the Houston office of the law firm Susman Godfrey, which is representing companies seeking refunds, said administration of President Donald Trump may challenge the international trade court's ability to order nationwide tariff refunds.
"I don’t know yet whether that’s going to happen, and we are going to have to see in the coming days, but if that does happen, that’s just going to slow things down even more," O'Black said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said they are working on a system to begin processing refunds in 45 days. Dallas-based attorney Michelle Schulz said she’s skeptical the government will meet that deadline. Further, she said, companies that sue to try to force U.S. Customs to repay the tariffs run the risk of retaliation.
"They will have a system whereby they’ll refund your money," Schulz said. "The problem is, Customs is also going to be looking in that same system to see if you made any mistakes, and they can go back five years."
According to import and tariff data compiled by Trade Partnership Worldwide, the Trump administration collected more $126 billion dollars in tariffs nationwide from February through December 2025 under IEEPA, including more than $11 billion from Texas businesses.
The burden of those tariffs has fallen particularly hard on small businesses that can least afford to seek redress. Daniel Rivera, owner of Houston-based toy store Misfit Toys, said he's been caught between tariffs driving up the cost of toys his store imports and pressure from suppliers and customers to hold down his retail prices.
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"There are wholesalers like Target and Walmart, they’re fine with making $5 on items. We can’t survive like that," Rivera said. "So, we lost a lot of money by not ordering what we typically order, and we lost a lot of money by absorbing all of the tariff cost for our shop."
Houston Public Media reached out to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to ask when or whether the administration might begin refunding tariffs collected under IEEPA. The department did not respond before publication.
Following the Supreme Court's ruling, Trump said he intends to replace the IEEPA tariffs by imposing 15% tariffs under other statutes.
"I think he will just continue to increase tariffs in other ways," Schulz said, "so that when the IEEPA tariffs are all returned, it really won’t make that much difference a year from now or five years from now."
That leaves business owners like Rivera in a bind. He estimates Misfit Toys was down $110,000 between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025, largely because of the impact of the tariffs. But he said he has no leverage to force the administration to reimburse his losses.
"We have no expectations of getting any money back from this administration," Rivera said. "If there’s something that happens and we get that money back that we spent, that would be wonderful, but we’re too small of a business to take any legal matters, any legal action against anyone. It would just wipe us out."
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