You’ve been importing products for years. Your freight forwarder handles logistics. Your supplier quotes you a landed price. Boxes show up at your warehouse. You’ve never filed a customs entry, never pulled an ES-003 report, and never thought about who the “importer of record” is on your shipments. Then the Supreme Court strikes down IEEPA tariffs, and suddenly everyone’s talking about refunds — and you have no idea if you’re even eligible.
Here’s what might surprise you: there’s a good chance you are the importer of record, and you don’t know it.
This situation is far more common than most people think. Thousands of U.S. companies import goods without understanding the customs infrastructure that supports those imports. They’ve delegated everything to third parties — freight forwarders, customs brokers, trading companies, suppliers — and have never had a reason to look at the paperwork. Until now.
This guide is for the company that’s hearing about IEEPA refunds and thinking, “Does this even apply to me?” The answer might be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
How You Became an IOR Without Knowing It
The importer of record is the entity listed on the customs entry summary (CBP Form 7501) as the party responsible for the imported goods. The IOR is responsible for paying duties, ensuring accurate classification, and maintaining records. The IOR is also the party entitled to refunds when duties are overpaid — including IEEPA refund claims.
Here’s how companies become the IOR without realizing it:
Your Freight Forwarder Listed You
When you hire a freight forwarder to bring goods from overseas, the forwarder typically subcontracts the customs brokerage to a licensed customs broker. The broker files the entry summary with CBP. In most cases, the broker lists your company as the IOR — because you’re the U.S. entity purchasing the goods and you’re the consignee on the bill of lading.
You may have signed a customs power of attorney when you first started working with the forwarder. That document authorized the broker to file entries on your behalf and listed your company as the IOR. You probably signed it once, years ago, and never thought about it again.
The result: Your company has been the IOR on every entry filed by that broker — and you’ve been paying IEEPA duties through the entry process without knowing it. Those duties were either included in the forwarder’s invoice (as a line item for “duty” or “customs charges”) or debited directly from your customs bond.
Your Supplier Set Up the Import Process
Some suppliers — especially Chinese manufacturers selling to U.S. companies — help set up the import logistics for their customers. The supplier recommends a freight forwarder, the forwarder arranges brokerage, and the whole system runs on autopilot. The U.S. buyer focuses on their business and never digs into the customs details.
In these arrangements, the U.S. buyer is almost always the IOR. The supplier handles the export side, but once goods arrive in U.S. waters, a U.S. entity needs to be listed as the importer. Your company is that entity.
You Bought “DDP” But You’re Still the IOR
This one is confusing. You may have been told your goods are shipped DDP (Delivered Duty Paid), which means the seller is responsible for all costs including customs duties. But DDP is an Incoterm — a commercial agreement between buyer and seller about who pays for what. It doesn’t determine who CBP recognizes as the importer of record.
In some DDP arrangements, the seller (or their agent) is listed as the IOR. But in many others, the U.S. buyer is still listed as the IOR even though the seller paid the duties economically. The customs entry paperwork may show your company name, your EIN, and your IOR number — even though the seller included duty costs in your purchase price.
The key distinction: Who paid the duty economically (you or your supplier) is different from who is legally the IOR (whoever is on the CF 7501). The refund goes to the legal IOR, not the economic payor. If you’re the IOR, you’re entitled to the refund — even if your supplier included duty costs in your price.
How to Find Out If You’re the IOR
The process of confirming your IOR status is straightforward, even if you’ve never looked at customs documentation before.
Step 1: Check Your Records for a Customs Bond
If your company has a customs bond (either continuous or single-entry), you’re almost certainly the IOR on at least some entries. A customs bond is required for any entity that serves as the IOR on U.S. imports. Check with your accounting department for annual customs bond renewal invoices — they typically run $500-$1,000/year for a continuous bond.
Step 2: Contact Your Freight Forwarder
Call or email the freight forwarder you use for international shipments. Ask them directly:
- “Who is listed as the importer of record on my customs entries?”
- “Which customs broker files my entries?”
- “Can I get a copy of the customs power of attorney on file?”
If your freight forwarder is large (DHL, FedEx Trade Networks, Expeditors, etc.), they’ll have this information readily available. Smaller forwarders may need to check with their brokerage partner.
Step 3: Request Your ES-003 Report
Once you know which customs broker files your entries, request an ES-003 report from ACE for the IEEPA period (February 4, 2025 through February 24, 2026). This report will show:
- Every entry filed under your IOR number
- The HTS codes used for each entry
- The duty amounts paid, including IEEPA tariff duties
- The liquidation status of each entry
If you see entries with HTS headings 9903.01 or 9903.02, those are IEEPA tariff charges — and they’re refundable.
Step 4: Check Your Invoices
Look at the invoices from your freight forwarder or customs broker. Many forwarders include a line item for “customs duty” or “import duty” on their invoices. If you’ve been paying duty charges on China-origin imports since February 2025, those charges likely include IEEPA tariffs.
Some forwarders break out the IEEPA tariff as a separate line item (e.g., “IEEPA Surcharge” or “Additional Duty - EO”). Others lump it in with the total duty amount. The ES-003 report will give you the definitive breakdown.
Common Scenarios: Who Is the IOR?
Here’s a quick reference table for the most common import arrangements:
| Arrangement | Who Is Likely the IOR | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| You hire a freight forwarder, they arrange customs brokerage | You | Most common scenario. You signed a POA. |
| Supplier ships DDP, uses their own IOR | Supplier/agent | Check the CF 7501 to confirm |
| Supplier ships DDP, but uses your IOR | You | IOR status trumps Incoterm |
| You use a 3PL that handles imports | Check with 3PL | Some 3PLs use their own IOR; others use yours |
| You buy from a U.S. distributor who imports | The distributor | You’re not the importer; they are |
| You use Amazon FBA with direct import | Usually you | See the FBA recovery guide |
| You use a trading company/sourcing agent | Depends on arrangement | Could be you or the agent |
The Discovery: What You Might Be Owed
Let’s walk through a scenario. A company we’ll call Metro Wellness — a health and wellness brand that sells supplements, personal care products, and fitness accessories — had been importing packaging materials, finished supplements, and accessories from China for three years. Their annual import volume was about $2.1 million in customs value.
Metro Wellness had never thought about customs compliance. Their freight forwarder handled everything. When the IEEPA ruling hit the news, Metro’s founder assumed it didn’t apply to them because “we don’t deal with customs — our forwarder handles all that.”
A colleague suggested Metro check their entry summaries. Metro’s founder called the freight forwarder and asked who the IOR was. The answer: Metro Wellness LLC. They’d been the IOR on every entry for three years.
The ES-003 report showed:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Entries during IEEPA period | 89 |
| Total IEEPA duties paid | $478,000 |
| Unliquidated entries | 62 ($335,000) |
| Liquidated entries within protest window | 24 ($128,000) |
| Entries approaching deadline | 3 ($15,000) |
Metro Wellness was owed nearly half a million dollars — money that was sitting in a government account waiting to be claimed. And they almost didn’t file because they didn’t realize they were the importer of record.
What Metro Did Next
Metro completed an Impact Assessment that mapped each entry to a recovery path:
PSCs for unliquidated entries: The freight forwarder’s customs broker filed Post-Summary Corrections on the 62 unliquidated entries. Because the broker had filed the original entries, they were able to file the PSCs directly through ACE.
Protests for liquidated entries: The broker filed protests on all 27 liquidated entries, prioritizing the 3 entries approaching their 180-day deadline.
The three deadline-sensitive entries were filed within a week. If Metro had waited another two months to start — which they would have if no one had prompted them to check — those entries would have passed the protest window. That’s $15,000 that would have required CIT litigation to recover instead of a simple protest filing.
Metro’s total expected recovery: $478,000 — approximately 23% of their annual China-origin import volume. For a company with 12% net margins, that’s equivalent to roughly $4 million in additional revenue.
The “I’m Just a Small Company” Misconception
One of the most persistent misconceptions about IEEPA recovery is that it’s only for large importers. We hear it all the time: “We’re too small for this to matter” or “Our import volume is tiny — it’s not worth the effort.”
Here’s the reality: if you imported from China between February 2025 and February 2026, and you were the IOR, you paid IEEPA duties. The IEEPA tariff rate was 20-34% on customs value. Even for a company importing just $500,000 per year from China, the IEEPA duties could total $100,000-$170,000. That’s real money for a small business.
The small importer guide covers the specific economics for companies with lower import volumes. The key insight: the recovery process scales down. PSC filings and protests don’t require more effort for a $100,000 claim than for a $10 million claim — the per-entry filing work is the same regardless of the dollar amount.
What If You’re Not the IOR?
If you check and discover that you’re not the IOR — your supplier, trading company, or 3PL is — you’re not necessarily out of luck. You have several options:
Negotiate with the IOR for a refund pass-through. If your supplier paid the duties and baked the cost into your price, they received the economic benefit of the tariff (through the higher price they charged you). Ask them to file for the refund and pass it through, or negotiate a credit on future orders. The trading company scenario in our apparel case study shows how this works in practice.
Request an assignment of refund rights. Some IORs are willing to formally assign their refund rights to you, especially if they have no interest in navigating the U.S. customs refund process (common with overseas suppliers).
Review your purchase agreements. If your contract includes language about tariff adjustments, cost pass-throughs, or duty refunds, you may have a contractual right to the refund even if you’re not the IOR.
Switch to being the IOR going forward. If you plan to continue importing, consider establishing your own IOR status for future entries. This gives you direct control over customs compliance and ensures you’re the party entitled to any future refunds or adjustments.
Common Questions From First-Time IOR Discoverers
”I signed a customs power of attorney years ago. Does that make me the IOR?”
Likely yes. A customs POA authorizes a broker to act on your behalf as the importer of record. Your company’s name, EIN, and address are on the entry summaries. You’re the IOR.
”My forwarder bills me for ‘duties and taxes’ — does that mean I paid the IEEPA tariff?”
Almost certainly. The “duties” on your forwarder’s invoice include all duties assessed on your entries, including IEEPA tariffs. Your ES-003 report will break out the specific amounts.
”I import from multiple countries. Are all my imports eligible?”
Only imports from countries subject to IEEPA tariffs are eligible. The primary exposure is China-origin imports, though Canada and Mexico imports were also affected during parts of the IEEPA period. Your ES-003 report will show which entries carry IEEPA tariff codes.
”My customs broker says they’ll handle the refund. Should I just let them?”
Your customs broker can and should file the PSCs and protests on your behalf. But you should understand what’s being filed, verify the amounts, and ensure no deadline-sensitive entries are being missed. An Impact Assessment provides independent verification of your broker’s data and filing plan. Consider auditing your broker’s IEEPA work if the dollar amounts are significant.
”What if some of my entries were filed under a different entity name?”
This happens when companies have name changes, DBA variations, or broker data entry errors. As long as the IOR number (EIN) is the same, the entries should be attributable to your company. Discrepancies in entity names can be resolved with CBP documentation.
The Downstream Impact: What Recovering Your IEEPA Refund Means for Your Business
For companies like Metro Wellness that didn’t know they were the IOR, the IEEPA refund is often a surprise windfall that can significantly impact the business. Here’s how to think about it:
Margin restoration. If you’ve been absorbing IEEPA tariff costs — either knowingly through higher landed costs or unknowingly through your forwarder’s invoices — the refund restores those margins retroactively. For Metro Wellness, the $478,000 refund represented nearly two years of the company’s net profit.
Go-forward cost reduction. With IEEPA tariffs eliminated, your import costs are immediately lower. Products that were borderline unprofitable during the IEEPA period may now be viable again. Review your product line economics with the tariff removed.
Customs education. The process of discovering your IOR status and understanding your customs entries has value beyond the refund. You now know who files your entries, what you pay in duties (including non-IEEPA duties like Section 301 tariffs), and how the customs system works. This knowledge protects you from future surprises.
Broker relationship management. Now that you know your customs broker exists (and that they’ve been filing entries on your behalf for years), you can manage that relationship proactively. Ask about classification optimization, duty drawback eligibility, and other ways to reduce your ongoing customs costs.
Your Next Step
If you’re reading this and realizing you might be an IOR who didn’t know it — you’re in good company. Thousands of importers are in the same position. The IEEPA refund is real, the legal authority is clear, and the money is waiting.
Your first call is to your freight forwarder. Ask who the IOR is. If it’s you, request the ES-003 data and get your Impact Assessment started.
Get your free Impact Assessment →
The 180-day protest window is already closing on the earliest IEEPA entries. The CAPE queue fills up as more importers file. The cost of waiting compounds every week. But none of that matters if you don’t know you have a claim in the first place. Find out today — one phone call to your freight forwarder is all it takes to start.
