The Trump administration is set to begin refunding $166 billion in tariff refunds, after losing a Supreme Court ruling that said the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.
Only U.S. corporations, not American citizens who had to pay higher prices for goods because of the illegal Trump tariffs, will get refunds, reports The New York Times:
For some U.S. businesses, the highly anticipated refunds could be substantial, offering critical if belated financial relief. Tariffs are taxes on imports, so the president’s trade policies have served as a great burden for companies that rely on foreign goods. Many have had to choose whether to absorb the duties, cut other costs or pass on the expenses to consumers.
By Monday morning, those companies can begin to submit documentation to the government to recover what they paid in illegal tariffs. In a sign of the demand, more than 3,000 businesses, including FedEx and Costco, have already sued the Trump administration in a bid to secure their refunds, with some cases filed even before the Supreme Court’s ruling.
But only the entities that officially paid the tariffs are eligible to recover that money. That means that the fuller universe of people affected by Mr. Trump’s policies — including millions of Americans who paid higher prices for the products they bought — are not able to apply for direct relief.
(Source: The New York Times, SCOTUSBlog, Yale.edu)