Trump’s widely-despised import tariffs were ruled unconstitutional, and everyone is suing someone—his administration, the delivery companies that collected it, the retailers—to get their money back. FedEx and UPS at least promise to pass on the refunds they hope to receive from Uncle Sam.
About $166 billion in U.S. tariff collections are subject to potential refunds. The Trump administration’s tariffs had upended global trade through 2025 and impacted the earnings of a wide range of companies, including logistics providers. UPS CEO Carol Tome said in a post-earnings investor call that the company had collected about $5 billion worth of tariffs from its customers.
Cynically, perhaps, they know they aren’t getting anything soon (“We think it’s going to take some time before the Treasury remits money to us”) but a refund system to allow companies to recover tariffs is now live and Reuters reported that thousands of companies have already made their claims.
“So far, so good” – though the system is a little glitchy, said Jay Foreman, CEO of toymaker Basic Fun, which had a team in its “war room” at its headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida, ready to start filing when the system went live at 8 a.m. U.S. Eastern time (1300 GMT). Foreman said the system didn’t crash as some had feared it might under the onslaught of attempted submissions – but rather would sometimes not allow an upload and force them to retry. The company has over 500 files it needs to upload to the system, although the system permits these to be uploaded in batches.
The Supremes struck down the tariffs in February. Though this deprived Trump of his market-upending game of threats, announcements and political gamesmanship (and obligated remuneration) he soon found a new legal rationale to impose a simpler 10% universal import tax.
According to Atlantic Council, this is lower than the average rate of 28% in 2025, but still much higher than the average 2.5% rate at the outset of Trump’s administration. The tariffs raised average US household taxes by an estimated $600–$1,000 annually in 2026.
