Statute of Limitations for IEEPA Tariff Refund Claims

Every IEEPA tariff refund claim has a deadline. Miss it, and you lose your right to recover — regardless of how strong your legal position is. The Supreme Court ruling established that IEEPA tariffs were unconstitutional. But a constitutional right to a refund means nothing if you let the procedural window close.

The complication is that different recovery paths have different deadlines, and those deadlines run on different clocks. A single importer might have entries on four different timelines simultaneously. This article maps every statute of limitations you need to know, explains how to calculate each one, and gives you a priority framework for triage.

The Deadline Landscape: Four Paths, Four Clocks

Here’s the overview:

Let’s break each one down.

Post-Summary Correction: The Pre-Liquidation Window

A Post-Summary Correction removes IEEPA duty lines from an entry that hasn’t yet been liquidated by CBP. This is the fastest government recovery path — and it has the simplest deadline: you must file before the entry liquidates.

How Liquidation Timing Works

CBP typically liquidates entries approximately 314 days after the entry filing date, though this can vary. Some entries liquidate faster (as early as 295 days); others take longer (up to 330+ days). Extensions of liquidation can push the date further, and CBP has issued blanket extensions on certain IEEPA entries.

Calculating Your PSC Window

For each entry, take the entry filing date and add approximately 314 days. That’s your estimated liquidation date — and your deadline for filing a PSC.

Example: An entry filed on June 15, 2025, would typically liquidate around April 25, 2026. Your PSC window closes on or before that date. As of today (April 2026), entries filed before roughly May 2025 are likely already liquidated. Entries filed from mid-2025 onward may still have an open PSC window.

What You Lose If You Miss It

If an entry liquidates before you file a PSC, the PSC option is gone for that entry. You move to the protest track (if within the 180-day window) or the CIT track (if not). Neither is as fast or as cheap as a PSC.

Priority Action

Check the liquidation status of every IEEPA entry filed after May 2025. If any are still unliquidated, file PSCs immediately through your customs broker. Don’t wait.

Formal Protest: The 180-Day Window

For entries that have already liquidated, the 180-day protest window under 19 U.S.C. Section 1514 is the primary recovery mechanism. This is the most important deadline for the majority of IEEPA importers.

How the 180-Day Clock Works

The clock starts on the date CBP liquidates the entry — not the date you learn about the liquidation, not the date of the Supreme Court ruling, and not any other date. The liquidation date is the trigger.

Once 180 days pass from liquidation without a protest being filed, the entry becomes “finally liquidated” and is considered conclusive. The CIT’s March 4 order only covers entries that are “not yet final” — meaning entries where the 180-day window is still open or where a protest has been filed.

Calculating Your Protest Deadlines

For each liquidated entry, take the liquidation date (available from your ACE ES-003 report) and add 180 days. That’s your protest deadline.

The earliest IEEPA entries were filed in early February 2025. These entries began liquidating around December 2025 (approximately 314 days later). Adding 180 days to December 2025 liquidation dates puts the first protest deadlines in June 2026 — which is approaching fast.

The timeline cascade:

These are estimates based on the typical 314-day liquidation cycle. Actual dates vary by entry. Always use the actual liquidation date from your ACE data.

What You Lose If You Miss It

An entry that passes the 180-day mark without a protest becomes finally liquidated. It falls outside the scope of the CIT’s universal refund order. Your only remaining option is CIT litigation under 28 U.S.C. Section 1581(i) — which is more expensive, slower, and less certain than the administrative protest route.

More importantly, you lose the protection of the CIT order. The March 4 order directs CBP to reliquidate entries that are “not yet final.” A protested entry stays “not final” indefinitely (until the protest is resolved). An unprotested entry past 180 days is final. Filing a protest is how you keep your entries inside the safety net.

Priority Action

Identify every liquidated entry and calculate its 180-day deadline. File protective protests on all entries where the window is still open. Start with the earliest liquidation dates and work forward. If you’re within 30 days of a deadline, this is urgent.

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CIT Litigation: The Backstop

The Court of International Trade is the judicial backstop for entries that can’t be recovered through PSC or protest. There are two primary jurisdictional bases for IEEPA-related CIT claims, and each has its own statute of limitations.

28 USC 1581(a): After Protest Denial

Under Section 1581(a), the CIT has jurisdiction to review CBP’s denial of a protest. The statute of limitations is 180 days from the date of the protest denial (or the date the protest is deemed denied if CBP doesn’t respond to an accelerated disposition request within 30 days).

Calculating the deadline: Take the date CBP denies your protest (or the date it’s deemed denied) and add 180 days. That’s your CIT filing deadline under Section 1581(a).

This path applies when you’ve filed a protest, CBP has denied it (or deemed denied it), and you want to challenge the denial in court. It requires a trade attorney admitted to the CIT bar.

28 USC 1581(i): Constitutional Claims

Section 1581(i) gives the CIT residual jurisdiction over customs matters that don’t fit into other jurisdictional categories. For IEEPA tariffs, this is the path for entries that are finally liquidated (past the 180-day protest window) where the importer is bringing a constitutional challenge.

The statute of limitations under Section 1581(i) is 2 years from the date of the action being challenged. For IEEPA tariffs, the “action being challenged” is the collection of the tariff itself. This means:

• An IEEPA tariff collected on February 4, 2025 has a Section 1581(i) deadline of approximately February 4, 2027
• An IEEPA tariff collected on February 20, 2026 (the last collection date before CBP stopped) has a deadline of approximately February 20, 2028

The Constitutional Claim Argument

There’s an important nuance here. Some legal scholars argue that the 2-year period should run from the date of the Supreme Court ruling (February 20, 2026) rather than the date of collection, because the constitutional violation wasn’t “discovered” until the Court ruled. Under this interpretation, all IEEPA entries would have a Section 1581(i) deadline of approximately February 20, 2028.

This argument hasn’t been definitively resolved by the courts. The safer approach is to use the earlier date (2 years from collection) for planning purposes and treat any later deadline as a potential extension, not a guarantee.

What CIT Litigation Costs

CIT litigation is significantly more expensive than the administrative routes. Expect legal fees of $25,000 to $100,000+ depending on case complexity, the number of entries involved, and whether the case is contested. Some trade attorneys handle CIT cases on contingency (typically 15-33% of recovery), which shifts the cost risk but reduces your net recovery.

The comparison of trade attorneys and claims advisory firms explains when CIT litigation makes financial sense and when other paths are more cost-effective.

Priority Action

If you have entries that are already past the 180-day protest window, consult with a trade attorney about a Section 1581(i) filing. Don’t assume these entries are lost — the CIT path is available, but it has its own deadline that’s approaching.

Immediate Capital: No Statutory Deadline (But Practical Limits)

Claim assignment through institutional buyers doesn’t have a statutory deadline in the way that protests and CIT filings do. You’re selling your refund claim to a buyer — it’s a private transaction, not a government filing.

However, there are practical limits:

Program availability. Institutional buyers have finite capital. As the IEEPA refund event progresses and more claims are validated and purchased, available capital may become constrained. Early movers typically get better pricing.

Claim validity. The underlying claim must still be valid for a buyer to purchase it. If you’ve missed all protest and CIT deadlines, the claim may not be recoverable — which means it’s not assignable. The claim needs to have a viable recovery path for a buyer to assign value to it.

Due diligence windows. Buyers typically require 5-10 business days for claim validation. If you’re approaching a protest deadline and want to explore claim assignment, don’t wait until the last day. Build in enough time for the validation process while keeping the protest option open as a fallback.

Priority Action

If immediate capital is attractive, start the conversation early. Get your Impact Assessment done, understand your claim value, and explore assignment options while your entries still have maximum recovery flexibility.

The Priority Triage Framework

With multiple deadlines running simultaneously, here’s how to prioritize:

Tier 1: Urgent (Act Within Days)

• Liquidated entries within 30 days of the 180-day protest deadline
• Entries approaching the 2-year CIT filing deadline under Section 1581(i)
• Any entry where a deadline is imminent and no filing has been made

Tier 2: High Priority (Act Within Weeks)

• Liquidated entries within 60-90 days of the protest deadline
• Unliquidated entries approaching estimated liquidation dates
• Denied protests approaching the 180-day CIT escalation deadline

Tier 3: Standard Priority (Act Within 1-2 Months)

• Liquidated entries with 90+ days remaining on the protest window
• Recently liquidated entries
• Entries where PSCs have been filed and are pending processing

Tier 4: Monitor

• Entries already protested (monitor for CBP response)
• Entries in the CAPE queue (monitor for processing progress)
• Entries where claim assignment is in progress

What Happens When You Miss a Deadline

Let’s be direct about the consequences:

Missed PSC window: You move to the protest track. You’re losing the fastest path but not the refund itself — as long as you’re within the 180-day protest window.

Missed 180-day protest window: The entry becomes finally liquidated. You lose the protection of the CIT’s March 4 order. Your only remaining option is CIT litigation under Section 1581(i), which costs more, takes longer, and requires legal representation.

Missed CIT filing deadline: The entry is gone. There is no further administrative or judicial remedy. The refund is permanently lost. This is the cliff — once you’re past this point, no amount of legal strategy can recover the money.

The bottom line: Every missed deadline narrows your options and increases your costs. The first deadline you miss moves you from a simple, low-cost recovery to a more complex, more expensive one. The last deadline you miss eliminates recovery entirely.

Special Cases: Extensions, Suspensions, and Tolling

Not every entry follows the standard timeline. Several situations can extend or alter the deadlines described above.

CBP Extensions of Liquidation

CBP has the authority to extend the liquidation of entries under 19 U.S.C. Section 1504. During the IEEPA period, CBP issued several blanket extensions on categories of IEEPA-affected entries. If your entries are subject to an extension, the liquidation date (and therefore the protest deadline) is pushed later.

Check your ACE data for extension notices. If an entry shows an extended liquidation date, recalculate your protest window based on the extended date — not the original estimated date. Extensions work in your favor by giving you more time, but they also mean the refund takes longer to reach you.

Suspension of Liquidation

In some cases, the CIT or CBP may suspend liquidation of specific entries or categories of entries. A suspension freezes the liquidation process entirely — the entry cannot liquidate until the suspension is lifted. This preserves the PSC window and prevents the protest clock from starting.

The CIT’s March 4 order effectively created a form of suspension for entries within its scope. Entries covered by the order are held in a processing queue rather than being liquidated in the normal course. This benefits importers by preserving options, but it also means refunds take longer because the entries can’t be finalized until the order’s framework is fully operational.

Tolling Agreements

In CIT litigation, the government and importer may agree to toll (pause) the statute of limitations while settlement negotiations or case consolidation is underway. This is common in large-scale customs litigation where both parties benefit from resolving cases in batches rather than individually.

If you’re pursuing CIT litigation and your attorney negotiates a tolling agreement, the statute of limitations clock pauses for the agreed period. This can provide additional breathing room for settlement discussions without risking the deadline.

How to Ensure You Don’t Miss Anything

Step 1: Pull your complete ACE data. Request ES-003 Entry Summary Details reports covering the entire IEEPA period (February 4, 2025, through February 24, 2026). Include liquidation dates and HTS code details.

Step 2: Map every IEEPA entry. Identify all entries with HTS codes 9903.01.xx and 9903.02.xx. Note the entry filing date, liquidation date (if liquidated), and IEEPA duty amount.

Step 3: Calculate every deadline. For each entry, determine the applicable deadline based on its status (unliquidated, liquidated within 180 days, or liquidated past 180 days).

Step 4: Triage by urgency. Apply the priority framework above. Act on Tier 1 entries immediately.

Step 5: Request an Impact Assessment. The assessment automates this entire process — it pulls your data, identifies every affected entry, calculates every deadline, and recommends the optimal recovery path for each entry. It’s the fastest way to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

The deadlines don’t wait. Neither should you.