IEEPA Tariff Refund Guide – Organizing Your ACE / CAPE Refund File

This guide is for buyers who suspect they may be missing money, missing notices, or missing the full story behind tariff refund activity.

It is not a generic explanation of tariff refunds.

It is a working system you can use to build a cleaner ACE / CAPE refund file without guessing.

Inside the guide, you’ll learn how to:

– Confirm who the real importer of record was across different periods and brokers.

– Build a complete document stack so you’re not chasing one PDF at a time.

– Use ACE as a verification tool, not a guessing tool.

– Keep a simple CAPE / refund activity log so you can see what was discussed, what was ordered, and what may have already been issued.

– Ask strong, respectful broker questions that get better answers.

– Coordinate internally so accounting, operations, and ownership are finally looking at the same picture.

– Build a practical refund tracker so you can see status, amounts, and next steps in one place.

– Follow a 30‑day action plan to move from scattered facts to a structured file.

One of the most valuable ideas in this guide is simple:

If refund money was sent, would anyone inside your business actually recognize it when it hit the bank?

That hidden problem shows up again and again in real cases. This guide helps buyers build a system so they can answer that question with evidence instead of guesswork.

This is NOT legal advice. Practical documentation guidance for importers and brokers by ERTC Audit Protection, LLC