If you imported anything in 2025, the government owes you money, and this month it started paying. CBP's refund page shows most of the roughly $166 billion pool certified to Treasury, valid claims paying in 60 to 90 days, and interest on top. It also shows $1.7 billion stuck because importers never gave CBP working bank details.
You have three choices with your claim: file and wait, sell it, or fight for the entries CBP is not paying yet. Each has a price, and one of them changes your September 15 tax payment.
What the market says a claim is worth
Pandora, the largest jewelry brand in the world, sold its $72 million claim for $55 million in May, 77 cents on the dollar, and said so in its August 12 report. That is the market's quote for cash now instead of cash in 60 to 90 days with an appeal hanging over it. The Justice Department appealed the universal refund order on June 3; claims keep paying while the appeal runs, but a buyer prices the risk that it stops.
e.l.f. went the other way and waited. Its August 5 results show about $50 million of refunds plus interest collected in the June quarter, worth roughly ten points of gross margin for the period. It is spending the money on marketing and price cuts.
For a brand at your size, the same math on a $1 million claim: sell at 77 cents and hold $770,000 before Black Friday inventory is due, or wait and collect $1 million plus interest sometime between October and December, assuming nothing changes. The right answer depends on what the cash is for and what your line of credit costs. A 23% discount to get money 60 days early is an annualized cost above 100%. If a bank line at 9% or 10% can bridge the gap, waiting wins by a mile. If no lender will bridge it and a supplier will not ship without the deposit, selling can still be the right call.
The entries nobody is paying yet
Two groups of duties are in a different bucket. Duties paid under the temporary Section 122 surcharge between February 24 and July 24 were ruled unlawful by the Court of International Trade in May, but the decision is stayed on appeal and only the plaintiffs are being refunded so far. Entries that were finally liquidated before the refund program are being reliquidated only for companies that sued.
That means a founder who does nothing keeps the option only on entries that are still open. Filing a protest on the rest costs a broker's time; it preserves a refund that may or may not come. Your customs broker can tell you in an afternoon which of your entries fall into each bucket.
The tax point most founders miss
Duties are part of inventory cost, not an expense of the month you paid them. That is how they went into your books, so it is how the refund has to come out.
- A refund on goods still sitting in inventory reduces the cost of that inventory. No income yet. The margin shows up when the goods sell.
- A refund on goods you already sold is income in the year you receive it, because you already deducted the duty through cost of goods sold. The interest CBP pays is income too.
- If you sell the claim, the proceeds take the place of the refund for tax purposes and the discount is your cost of getting paid early. Have your preparer confirm the treatment before you book it.
For most importing brands, a refund arriving now is income in 2026, which raises the third estimated payment due September 15. A refund that lands in October raises the January one. Neither is a problem if it is in the forecast. Both are a problem if the money is already spent on inventory when the estimate comes due.
One more party has an opinion: your lender. If your line is secured by receivables and proceeds, the refund may be collateral, and some agreements require it to pay down the line. Ask before you commit it.
Four things to do this month
- Confirm the claim is filed and CBP has working ACH details. That is the entire reason $1.7 billion is stuck.
- Split the claim by bucket: open entries paying now, Section 122 entries that need a protest, and finally liquidated entries that need a lawsuit to recover.
- Price waiting against selling with your own cost of money, not the buyer's pitch.
- Tell your preparer how much lands before September 15 and how much after, so the refund shows up in the right estimate instead of as a surprise next April.
Where your facts change the answer
Every claim is entry by entry, and the deadlines differ by which tariff you paid; the refund page lists them. State income tax rules on the refund can differ from federal. If you capitalized duties one way for the books and another way for tax, the refund follows each set of books separately, which is a conversation to have before the money arrives.
The refund is the easiest money you will make this year. The tax on it is the easiest thing to get wrong. If nobody has walked you through what your specific claim does to inventory, taxable income, and the September estimate, that is the tax planning call to make now. Our earlier guide to tariff accounting covers how the duties went into your books in the first place.
Reading about taxes usually means paying too much of them.
Over 90% of the time our tax advisors find savings a previous CPA missed — for brands with $150K+ in net profit, a typical first-year plan uncovers $20K–$50K. Grab the free Tax Savings Checklist, browse the tax strategy playbook, or start with a zero-cost planning session.