Tariff Refunds 2026: Which businesses are eligible to get refunds?

Thousands of U.S. businesses are receiving tariff refunds in 2026 after the Supreme Court struck down many of the tariffs collected under emergency powers.

The key requirement is straightforward: refunds generally go to the importers that directly paid the affected tariff charges to the federal government.

That means retailers, manufacturers, small businesses and shipping companies may qualify if they were the importer of record and paid tariffs that were later invalidated.

Consumers who indirectly covered those costs through higher prices normally aren't entitled to claim money directly from the government.

Which businesses are eligible for tariff refunds?

The refunds are being returned primarily to companies and importers that actually paid the tariff fees.

Major businesses have already received enormous sums. Walmart has received approximately $2.9 billion, while Apple has received about $2.2 billion. Target and Nike have each recovered close to $1 billion.

Small businesses that directly imported goods and paid the affected tariffs may also be eligible, although the financial impact on them has often been more severe.

Sara Albrecht , chairman and CEO of the Liberty Justice Center, explained how much pressure the tariffs placed on smaller companies.

“They basically loaned all of their working capital to the government for the past year,” Albrecht said.

Even receiving the original tariff money back doesn't necessarily undo the financial damage.

“There's so many opportunities, costs that came along with this. They couldn't hire people, they couldn't buy machinery, they couldn't invest in new products or new supply chains. Getting back their money and passing it on to customers in a perfect world would be great, but it's not really a straight pass through for small businesses,” she added.

Will customers receive any tariff refund money?

Consumers generally won't receive federal tariff refund checks because they weren't the parties that directly paid Customs.

“It’s all just a giant transfer from consumers to corporations,” said Michael Ettlinger , a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “You can’t really design a worse tax than that.”

Shipping companies are an important exception.

UPS, FedEx and DHL have pledged to return qualifying tariff refunds to customers because those companies often billed importers directly for the exact tariff amount.

“Now that FedEx and UPS have received a refund of that $100 from the federal government, they are absolutely obligated to return it to the person they collected it from,” Syracuse University law dean Terence Lau said.

Retailers face a different situation because tariffs were often absorbed into general prices rather than separately charged.

“It’s like the retailer stirred the tax into the batter,” Lau said. “So once it’s cooked into the cake you can’t just back it out ingredient by ingredient anymore because it’s not separated.”