CAPE IEEPA Refunds: Which ACE Entries Remain Excluded in 2026

CAPE IEEPA refunds can involve millions of entry lines, but successful recovery depends on entry-level eligibility rather than portfolio-level assumptions. Importers and customs brokers need a disciplined process for separating eligible entries from finally liquidated, protested, reconciled, drawback-related, and other excluded transactions before submitting declarations through ACE.

How the CAPE Refund Process Works

Filing Through the ACE Portal

The Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries program, commonly known as CAPE, provides the ACE Portal workflow for initiating eligible IEEPA duty refunds. CAPE declarations cannot be transmitted through the Automated Broker Interface. They must generally be uploaded as CSV files through the CAPE tab available within eligible Importer, Organizational Broker, or Filer sub-accounts.

Each declaration may contain up to 9,999 entries. Organizations with larger entry populations must divide them across multiple files while preserving consistent eligibility logic, identifiers, and supporting data. The current Portal template should be used rather than an internally created approximation because unexpected formatting, column, or data-type differences can generate avoidable validation failures.

Submission authority is also restricted. A declaration may generally be filed by the importer of record identified on the entries or by the customs broker that originally filed those entries for that importer. A different broker or third-party refund service typically cannot assume CAPE filing authority merely because the importer has retained it for recovery work.

What Happens After Acceptance

For valid entries, ACE removes the applicable dutiable IEEPA Chapter 99 tariff treatment and associated duties, then creates a new entry-summary version. The entry proceeds through review and, where appropriate, liquidation or reliquidation. Approved amounts are generally issued as consolidated electronic refunds rather than individual payments for every entry.

Acceptance is not the same as immediate payment. Refund timing can be affected by review, liquidation status, debt offsets, banking enrollment, and data quality. Organizations should therefore reconcile CAPE acceptance, entry-summary changes, liquidation activity, and Treasury payment status as separate operational events.

Which Entries Are Currently Eligible for CAPE

Liquidation Status and the 80-Day Window

CAPE generally processes eligible unliquidated entries and entries that are no more than 80 days past liquidation. The 80-day measurement is critical: an entry that appears substantively similar to another transaction may receive different treatment solely because its liquidation date places it outside the active processing window.

Entries with liquidation suspended, extended, or under review may also move through the CAPE workflow. They generally retain their existing status while the underlying issue remains unresolved. Any validated IEEPA refund is typically released after liquidation rather than while the entry remains suspended or otherwise open.

This distinction requires compliance teams to evaluate current ACE status, not simply the status reflected in an older extract. A portfolio can change daily as entries liquidate or move beyond the 80-day threshold. Eligibility files should therefore be refreshed immediately before declaration construction and submission.

Reconciliation-Flagged Entries and Warehouse Withdrawals

Certain Entry Types 01, 02, and 06 flagged for reconciliation may be eligible when an Entry Type 09 reconciliation summary has not yet been filed. Once the Type 09 is on file, the underlying flagged entries move into an excluded category and should not be included in a CAPE declaration.

Warehouse withdrawal Entry Types 31, 32, 34, and 38 may generally qualify when the other CAPE conditions are met. These withdrawal transactions must be distinguished from warehouse Entry Types 21 and 22, which remain excluded. Warehouse entries previously submitted without corresponding eligible withdrawals should not be assumed to generate refunds.

Because entry type, reconciliation status, and liquidation timing interact, eligibility should be determined through a rules-based classification process rather than a single date filter.

Entries ACE Still Excludes From CAPE

Core Exclusion Categories

Several categories remain outside the standard CAPE declaration process. Importers and brokers should place them in separate exception queues rather than repeatedly submitting them in the expectation that ACE validations will change. Current exclusions generally include:

• Finally liquidated entries outside the active CAPE window
• Entries subject to an open protest
• Entries included on a drawback claim
• Warehouse Entry Types 21 and 22
• Entry Type 09 reconciliation summaries
• Reconciliation-flagged Entry Types 01, 02, and 06 when a Type 09 is already on file
• Entries not filed in ACE or lacking liquidation status in ACE
• Certain antidumping and countervailing duty entries pending liquidation after Department of Commerce instructions

A Post Summary Correction cannot generally be used to initiate an IEEPA refund for these excluded scenarios. Attempting to route an otherwise ineligible entry through another correction mechanism can create inconsistent versions, unnecessary research work, and additional compliance risk without establishing CAPE eligibility.

Finally Liquidated Entries Require a Separate Inventory

Finally liquidated entries deserve particular attention because they may represent a substantial portion of an importer’s potential recovery. At present, ordinary CAPE processing does not accept entries more than 80 days past liquidation merely because they contain refundable IEEPA duties.

A narrowly limited Phase 3 deployment is scheduled for October 6, 2026. It is expected to cover finally liquidated entries only for qualifying Court of International Trade plaintiffs that submitted a valid importer-of-record number by the applicable deadline and received a court order authorizing reliquidation. It does not create general eligibility for non-plaintiffs or for every finally liquidated entry.

Organizations should maintain these entries in a distinct offline inventory, preserving entry data, liquidation dates, Chapter 99 indicators, duty amounts, plaintiff status, court-order applicability, and importer identifiers. Non-plaintiff entries should continue to be treated as excluded unless the government formally expands eligibility or another legally available refund mechanism applies.

Building a Controlled CAPE Refund Operation

Segment Before Creating Declaration Files

A reliable refund operation begins with segmentation. Entry populations should be divided into CAPE-eligible, temporarily ineligible, legally or procedurally excluded, and research-required categories. The decision rules should account for liquidation dates, protests, drawback claims, reconciliation activity, warehouse transactions, AD/CVD status, filing system, importer identity, and original broker.

This approach prevents declaration files from becoming mixed batches in which valid entries are obscured by predictable rejections. It also creates a defensible audit trail showing why each entry was submitted, deferred, or excluded.

Complete Banking and Identity Controls

The importer should enroll in ACH Refund through the Importer sub-account before payment is expected. ACH Refund Authorization is separate from ACH arrangements used to pay duties, and refunds are generally not issued by paper check. Banking ownership, importer numbers, suffixes, and account access should be validated early to prevent accepted refunds from stalling at the payment stage.

The filing organization must also confirm that the submitter is either the importer of record or the broker that filed the listed entries. Broker consolidations, acquisitions, filer-code changes, and importer reorganizations can complicate this control and should be researched before upload.

Monitor Acceptance Through Payment

CAPE operations should reconcile uploaded files against ACE reporting at every stage. ES-003 can support line-level tariff and IEEPA indicator analysis, while ES-022 can assist with CAPE entry-summary visibility. REV-603 supports refund-status monitoring, with REV-613 and REV-615 providing additional refund and financial detail where needed.

The operational ledger should record file name, submission date, entry count, acceptance result, rejection reason, revised entry version, liquidation event, approved amount, offset, and payment status. This level of control helps trade teams identify systematic errors, document recoveries, and respond efficiently when an entry requires escalation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Finally Liquidated Entries Be Included in a CAPE Declaration?

Generally, no. Entries more than 80 days past liquidation remain excluded from ordinary CAPE processing. A limited Phase 3 is scheduled for qualifying court plaintiffs with authorized reliquidation, but non-plaintiffs and entries outside that narrow population should remain in a separate exception inventory.

Can a Broker Submit CAPE Declarations for Entries Filed by Another Broker?

Generally, CAPE submission is limited to the importer of record or the customs broker that originally filed the entries for that importer. A broker newly appointed for refund work should not assume that a power of attorney alone makes it an eligible CAPE submitter for entries filed by another broker.

Are Reconciliation-Flagged Entries Eligible?

Entry Types 01, 02, and 06 flagged for reconciliation may qualify if a Type 09 reconciliation summary has not been filed and all other conditions are satisfied. When the Type 09 is already on file, both the reconciliation summary and affected underlying entries remain outside the standard CAPE workflow.

Can an Importer Use a Post Summary Correction Instead?

A Post Summary Correction generally cannot be used to initiate an IEEPA refund for an entry excluded from CAPE. Importers should avoid treating PSC filing as a workaround for final liquidation, open protests, drawback involvement, filed reconciliations, or other CAPE exclusions.

How Long Do CAPE Refunds Take?

Refunds commonly require approximately 60 to 90 days after CAPE acceptance, although timing can vary. Review requirements, liquidation status, Treasury processing, debt offsets, banking issues, and entry-level exceptions may extend the cycle. Acceptance should therefore be tracked separately from refund approval and payment.

How Stable Software Can Help

Automating Eligibility, Exceptions, and Refund Tracking

Stable Software helps importers and customs brokers convert complex ACE data into a controlled CAPE refund workflow. Its trade technology can support entry segmentation, liquidation-window calculations, reconciliation screening, exclusion management, declaration-file preparation, and refund-status monitoring across large portfolios.

Rather than relying on disconnected spreadsheets, trade teams can maintain a structured record of eligible entries, finally liquidated exceptions, submission results, revised summaries, expected refunds, and payments. This improves operational accuracy while giving compliance leaders clearer oversight of recovery progress and unresolved exposure. Organizations preparing CAPE declarations or building a scalable IEEPA refund process can learn more at stablesoftware.com.

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