CAPE Refund Not Received? How to Check IEEPA Refund Status

Informational only - not legal advice.

The current CBP refund posture

CBP's dedicated IEEPA Duty Refunds page now gives a clearer post-filing timeline: after a CAPE Declaration is validated and accepted, ACE removes the IEEPA Chapter 99 line, recalculates the entry, and refunds are consolidated by Importer of Record, or by the IOR's Form 4811 notify party, and liquidation date.

That means payment usually will not map one-to-one to a single entry or even a single declaration.

CBP's May 12, 2026 declaration in Euro-Notions Florida v. United States gives the scale of the issue. As of 7:00 a.m. Eastern on May 11:

The practical point: a large volume is moving through CAPE, but missing ACH information is already blocking real payments.

Start with the payment status, not the bank account

Do not assume "not in my bank account" means the same thing in every case.

Step 1: Confirm CAPE acceptance

Acceptance matters because CBP's 60-90 day timing runs from acceptance of the CAPE Declaration, not from the day the filer started preparing the CSV.

Ask the filer for:

• CAPE claim/declaration number
• file validation result
• accepted entry list
• rejected entry list and rejection reasons
• submission date and acceptance date

If your broker filed the CAPE Declaration, do not settle for "we filed it" as the only answer. You need the accepted/rejected entry detail.

Step 2: Run ES-022

Use ES-022 to link:

• CAPE declaration number
• entry summary number
• refund number
• principal refund amount
• interest amount

This is the bridge between the filing event and the refund event. Without it, finance teams often try to reconcile bank deposits against incomplete entry lists.

Step 3: Run REV-603

Before payment-status review, ask whether the filer can provide Entry Summary Query output. CBP added liquidation reason code 36 = CAPE on May 12, 2026, so a code 36 result can help confirm that a liquidation or reliquidation event was tied to CAPE.

Then run REV-603, the central payment-status report. CBP identifies these refund secondary statuses:

If Entry Summary Query shows code 36 but REV-603 does not show Treasury Issued, do not assume the refund is lost. The entry may have processed through CAPE liquidation/reliquidation while payment is still waiting on Treasury transmission, ACH, Form 4811 routing, netting, or offset handling.

If the status is Treasury Issued, reconcile against the receiving party, not only against your own bank account. CAPE refunds can route to the IOR or to the IOR's Form 4811 notify party.

Step 4: If ACH was rejected, use REV-613

REV-613 is the ACH Rejected Refunds Report. If it shows a rejected refund:

1. Confirm which party was supposed to receive the refund: IOR or Form 4811 notify party.
2. Confirm that party has an active ACE Portal account.
3. Confirm ACH Refund enrollment under the correct importer number or recipient account.
4. If multiple TIN suffixes exist, confirm each suffix has separate ACH enrollment.
5. After ACH is fixed, follow CBP's replacement refund instructions.

CBP's replacement-refund page says rejected non-ACH refunds should be fixed by updating/enrolling in ACH Refunds via ACE, then notifying frn-achrefundsupport@cbp.dhs.gov. For other replacement refund requests, CBP identifies RevenueRefunds@cbp.dhs.gov and says to allow 4-6 weeks after a request is accepted.

Step 5: Check Form 4811 routing

CAPE refund entitlement and payment receipt are not always the same party. CBP says refunds are consolidated by the IOR or the IOR's Form 4811 notify party and liquidation date.

If a broker, attorney, or other third party expects to receive the payment, confirm:

• the Form 4811 or ACE Notify Parties designation is actually on file,
• the party is listed as the authorized 4811 notify party for the entry,
• the third party has its own ACE Portal account, and
• the third party completed ACH Refund enrollment.

If the buyer paid the tariff but was not the IOR, the buyer may not see a direct ACH deposit from CBP. The buyer should first confirm who the IOR was on the entry papers and then ask the IOR or broker for refund-status reports.

Step 6: Account for netting and debt offsets

CBP says CAPE refunds are subject to normal liquidation/reliquidation rules, including netting of overpayments and underpayments for the entire entry. CBP also says refunds may be diverted to offset legally fixed and undisputed unpaid debts to the United States.

That creates two common surprises:

• The expected IEEPA principal amount may not equal the final payment because CBP netted another change on the same entry.
• Funds Diverted may mean the refund was real, but it was applied to an outstanding bill before any balance was paid.

This is why the REV-603 status, bill/offset detail, and ES-022 principal/interest split all matter.

Step 7: Watch for entries that wait for liquidation

CBP says some scenarios maintain their liquidation status, with validated refunds issued at liquidation. Examples include:

• entries that are extended,
• entries that are suspended,
• entries under CBP review, and
• warehouse entries.

For those entries, an accepted CAPE Declaration may be a necessary step, but not the final payment trigger.

Do not get scammed while waiting

CBP published a specific IEEPA-refund scam warning after CAPE launched. The safe operating rules are:

• CAPE Declarations are submitted through verified ACE Portal accounts.
• Do not enter bank, company, or personal data into a non-ACE website that claims to process IEEPA refunds.
• Be skeptical of unsolicited refund offers, calls, texts, and urgent messages.
• Verify CBP email senders. CBP email addresses end in @cbp.dhs.gov.
• CBP identified IEEPAFraud@cbp.dhs.gov for suspicious IEEPA-refund communications.

Broker request template

Subject: CAPE refund status request - [Importer name] - [date range]

Body:

Please send the CAPE refund status package for our IEEPA entries in [date range]. We need:

• CAPE declaration number(s)
• submission and acceptance dates
• accepted and rejected entry lists
• ES-022 export showing declaration, entry, refund number, principal, and interest
• Entry Summary Query output showing liquidation reason code, if available
• REV-603 export showing refund secondary status
• REV-613 export for any ACH-rejected refunds
• REV-615 export for any CAPE refund details sent to Treasury
• Form 4811 notify party name and number, if refund routing uses a notify party
• confirmation that the refund recipient's ACH Refund enrollment is active in ACE

What not to assume

• Do not assume May 12, 2026 meant every refund would be paid that day. CBP said ACH transactions could begin as early as May 12.
• Do not assume an accepted CAPE Declaration means immediate payment.
• Do not assume a missing bank deposit means CBP has not acted. It may be sent to Treasury, diverted, returned, or routed to a Form 4811 notify party.
• Do not treat Section 122 9903.03.* duties as CAPE-eligible IEEPA refunds.