Trump's tariffs cost the average family $1,700 — now corporations are getting a $166B refund. Where are America's tariff checks?

Rudro ChakrabartiSat, April 25, 2026 at 6:00 PM UTC

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Trump shrugs

Americans absorbed a year of tariff-driven price hikes on groceries, electronics, clothes and shipping — costing families $1,700 per household on average, according to the Joint Economic Committee (1).

Now the federal government is paying the money back. Just not to you.

On April 20, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) opened a portal allowing businesses to claim refunds on roughly $166 billion in tariffs that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in February (2). Only the companies that filed the customs paperwork are eligible. Consumers — who absorbed the price increases — are locked out entirely.

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Democrats, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden and Ed Markey, have demanded direct refunds for households. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced his American Worker Rebate Act in July 2025, and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) introduced the Trump Tariff Rebate Act in December.

On April 20, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X that Americans aren't getting tariff checks and are instead paying interest on the tariffs already collected, taking direct aim at Trump and "his lackeys." So far, none of those checks exist.

How the $166 billion refund works

The Supreme Court's 6-3 February ruling found that Trump exceeded his authority when he used the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose sweeping global tariffs (2). U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Richard Eaton subsequently ordered CBP to build a refund mechanism, which launched as the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries (CAPE) system on April 20.

That means 53 million shipments, more than 330,000 importers and roughly $166 billion owed (3) — plus statutory interest accruing at roughly $650 million a month, according to the Court of International Trade (4). Of that pool, roughly $127 billion is realistically refund-eligible in CAPE's initial deployment, per CBP. Refunds are expected to take 60 to 90 days to land — assuming claims clear without errors.

CBS News reported on opening day that some importers couldn't even file: Beth Benike, co-founder of Minnesota baby products maker Busy Baby, spent more than four hours on hold with CBP after receiving a "Duplicate tax ID" error tying her importer account to someone else's (5).

On April 21, Judge Eaton issued a temporary stay after customs surety bond providers asked for the right to claim refunds on behalf of importers that defaulted or went out of business. He's ordered CBP to file a progress report by April 28, and the Justice Department has until June 7 to appeal.

Why corporations get the check, not consumers

Under U.S. trade law, only the "importer of record" — the company that filed the customs paperwork — can claim a refund. Consumers have no standing.

That distinction matters because the cost didn't stop at the border. Yale's Budget Lab estimated that by November 2025, as much as 96% of tariffs on imported durable goods and 63% on imported core goods were being passed through to consumer prices (6).

Many companies now stand to benefit twice: they raised prices to cover the tariffs and now get the tariff payments refunded. BOK Financial chief investment strategist Steve Wyett told Newsweek "it seems unlikely consumers will see lower prices from tariff refunds," predicting the rebate would instead boost corporate finances and potentially reduce layoffs (7). A secondary market has also emerged in which hedge funds buy refund claims at a discount — currently around 40 cents on the dollar, up from 20 cents before the Supreme Court ruling — meaning a meaningful share of the payout could end up with hedge funds rather than importers or shoppers (8).

Trump: 'I'll remember' companies that take the refund

In a CNBC interview on April 21, Trump told companies it would be "brilliant" not to seek refunds and warned, "If they don't do that, I'll remember them" (9). He suggested companies receiving large refunds could end up enriching "the enemy" or "people that have hated the United States."

Apple, Amazon and Walmart have not filed for refunds. CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin, who interviewed Trump on Squawk Box, suggested companies may be holding back to avoid 'offending' the president. The stakes are large: a Citi analysis cited by CNBC pegged Walmart's potential refund at $10.2 billion, Target's at $2.2 billion and Nike's at $1 billion, with Kohl's, Gap and Macy's owed $550 million, $400 million and $320 million respectively.

Companies that have sued to preserve their refund rights include Costco, FedEx, Mondelez and Gap. Levi Strauss alone expects roughly $80 million back, CFO Harmit Singh told CNBC.

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Trump also signaled new tariffs are coming under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, claiming they could generate "bigger numbers" than the IEEPA duties — though they aren't expected to be in place until July. A separate 10% tariff under Section 122 of the same statute is already in effect, replacing the bulk of the IEEPA duties at a similar revenue level.

Read More: Almost 50 with no retirement savings? Here’s why you shouldn’t panic

Where are America's tariff checks?

Trump has personally floated two consumer rebate programs over the past year. Neither has materialized.

The first was a "tariff dividend" of at least $2,000 per person, which Trump pledged on Truth Social in November 2025 and reiterated in January, saying checks would arrive "toward the end of the year." Yale's Budget Lab estimated the program would cost $450 billion — about twice the total tariff revenue collected in 2026. Bankrate financial analyst Stephen Kates told CNBC the chance of any refund bill passing is remote: a Republican-backed measure would essentially admit the tariffs were a policy mistake, while Democrats have little incentive to help ahead of the midterms when tariffs and gas prices are politically associated with the GOP (10).

The second was the "DOGE dividend," a $5,000 per-household payment proposed by investor James Fishback and amplified by Elon Musk and Trump. As DOGE's savings target collapsed from $2 trillion to $150 billion, the per-household math shrank to roughly $380 — before the program was wound down entirely.

Multiple bills have since been introduced from both sides of the aisle. Sens. Wyden, Markey and Shaheen, joined by 23 Senate Democrats, introduced what was originally called the Tariff Refund Act of 2026 in February to require full refunds with interest, prioritize small businesses, and formally urge large corporations to pass refunds to customers. The trio rebranded the bill as the Speedy Tariff Refund Act and pushed for unanimous consent on the Senate floor on April 21, the day Trump made his "I'll remember them" remarks.

Sen. Heinrich's Tariff Refunds for Working Families Act would deliver $1,200 per joint filer earning under $180,000, plus $600 per child. On the Republican side, Hawley's American Worker Rebate Act and Burchett's Trump Tariff Rebate Act — which would raise the standard deduction by a "tariff rebate amount" — are also pending. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) introduced the American Consumer Tariff Rebate Act of 2026, calling for $231 billion in direct payments. All are sitting in committee. White House spokesman Kush Desai dismissed the Democratic effort as "pathetic but unsurprising."

Your realistic options for getting any of it back

A handful of companies have pledged to share refunds with customers. FedEx said it will refund shippers and consumers who originally bore the charges (7). UPS plans to issue automated refunds to customers who paid tariffs through it. Costco CEO Ron Vachris told investors the warehouse chain will return the money through lower prices going forward — though that approach has already drawn class-action interest because it doesn't compensate the original shoppers who paid the markup.

Most companies, however, don't plan to share. In CNBC's CFO Council quarterly survey, 12 of 25 chief financial officers said their company plans to apply for tariff refunds — but none said they'd directly share the money with customers. Ten of those CFOs said they expect repayment to take a year or longer.

That leaves the courts. At least five proposed consumer class actions have been filed against Costco, EssilorLuxottica (the maker of Ray-Ban), Fabletics, Lululemon, UPS and FedEx, all alleging unjust enrichment under state consumer protection laws. The lead test case is Stockov v. Costco, filed in Illinois federal court in March by member Matthew Stockov, which estimates Costco is owed "hundreds of millions" in refunds. The complaint argues Costco shouldn't be allowed to collect from both customers — through inflated prices — and the federal government, through the refund (11). Notably, the suit dismisses Costco's "lower prices and better values" pledge as a hollow promise of "possible future benefit to an indeterminate group of future shoppers." Wyett of BOK Financial offered one tip for individual claims: if a company itemized a "tariff surcharge" on your receipt and you kept it, you may have a stronger case.

When bipartisan voices from Elizabeth Warren to Marjorie Taylor Greene are asking the same question, expect more pressure on Congress. The legislative answer hasn't arrived. Until Congress acts, the average consumer's path back to that $1,700 runs through a class action or a cooperative company. Meanwhile, the next round of tariffs is already being teed up.

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Article sources

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.

Joint Economic Committee (1); Supreme Court of the United States (2); Government Executive (3); U.S. Chamber of Commerce (4); CBS News (5); Yale Budget Lab (6); Newsweek (7); NPR (8); CNBC (9, 10); Retail Dive (11)

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.

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Source: “AOL Money”