Drafting IEEPA refund (CAPE) declarations from your entry data, with the broker in control

IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) refunds turned into a second job for many brokerages in 2026. The filing itself happens in CAPE, the refund tool US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) built inside ACE (the Automated Commercial Environment). The slow part is everything before the filing: working out, client by client, which entries belong in a declaration.

This post covers where the refund process stands, what the work actually involves, and how AI can draft the entry list while your licensed broker stays in charge of what gets filed.

Where refunds stand

• Reuters reported in March 2026 that about $166 billion in these tariffs had been paid on more than 53 million shipments by about 330,000 importers (Reuters via Prothom Alo, Mar 2026).
• By September 2026, more than 286,000 CAPE declarations had been submitted, over 201,000 had been accepted for processing, and they covered about 27.2 million entries (C.H. Robinson client advisory, Sep 2026).
• The same advisory reported about $122 billion, including interest, certified and sent to the US Treasury for payment.
• About 20,184 refunds worth $1.3 billion were on hold because the importer of record had not provided ACH (Automated Clearing House) banking information.
• CAPE Phase 3, letting eligible plaintiffs seek refunds on finally liquidated entries covered by court-ordered reliquidation, was scheduled to go live October 6, 2026. Since June 29, 2026, CAPE has also supported certain reconciliation-flagged entries that are unliquidated or recently liquidated and have no reconciliation entry filed yet.

Two takeaways. A lot of refund money has already moved, so the remaining work skews toward the harder cases: later phases, reconciliation flags, liquidated entries, missing banking details. And CBP keeps changing CAPE in phases, so any process you build has to follow CBP's current guidance on its IEEPA duty refunds page, not last spring's.

Who files

The importer of record or its customs broker can file CAPE declarations (Avalara, vendor, Sep 2026). When your brokerage prepares one, it is preparing a document meant for filing with CBP, which CBP ruling H350722 treats as customs business. That's why the licensed broker, not the software, decides which entries go in (ST&R Trade Report, Mar 2026).

Where the hours go

For each client the work usually looks like this:

1. Pull the client's entry history from ACE reports or your ABI (Automated Broker Interface) software.
2. Clean it up: different exports, different column names, duplicates.
3. Decide which entries fall inside the phase CBP currently accepts, and which don't yet.
4. Flag the awkward ones: reconciliation flags, liquidation status, entries filed by another broker.
5. Check the importer-of-record details and whether the client has set up ACH.
6. Build the declaration in the format CBP's current guidance calls for.
7. Have the broker review and file it, then track acceptance and payment.

Steps 2, 4 and 5 are where AI helps most. Step 3 is where the broker's judgment matters most.

What AI drafts, and what the broker decides

The reasons column is the piece that makes review fast. A broker can scan "excluded: liquidated, not covered by Phase 3" much faster than re-deriving it from raw data.

How to set it up

1. Start from one client you know well

Pick a client whose entries your broker already understands. Run the draft workflow against that client's history and compare the output with what the broker would have chosen. Differences are your training material.

2. Write the sorting rules down first

The AI should apply rules your broker wrote, not invent its own. Put them in plain language: which entry types, which date ranges, which liquidation statuses, which phase. When CBP changes the rules, update this list first.

3. Keep the data in your accounts

Run the workflow inside your brokerage's own accounts, on US-region services. Under the 2022 Part 111 rules, original records, electronic ones included, stay inside the US customs territory, and sharing client information with a third party needs the client's written authorization (GHY International, Oct 2022).

4. Log the draft and the decision

Save the AI's draft list, the broker's changes and the approval with the client file. 19 CFR 111.23 requires records to be kept at least 5 years after the date of entry.

5. Chase the money that's stuck

Run the ACH check on every client before filing. With $1.3 billion reported on hold for missing banking details, a short drafted reminder may be the most valuable thing the workflow produces.

What not to do

• Don't let the tool decide what's in the declaration. It sorts and explains; the broker decides.
• Don't send AI-drafted entry lists straight to clients as if they were final.
• Don't build to an old format. Check CBP's refunds page and CSMS (Cargo Systems Messaging Service) messages before each phase.
• Don't tie anyone's fee to the entries you file. H350722 flagged fees tied to the entry as a possible 19 CFR 111.36(b) problem. Have counsel review any refund fee or referral arrangement.

Keep learning for free

CBP has run free webinars on CAPE that carried continuing-education credit, including "CAPE Enhancements and Questions About Your IEEPA Refund" on July 15, 2026 (NCBFAA listing, Jul 2026). More on credits in our CE post.

Lunan is not a law firm or a licensed broker, and nothing here is legal advice; confirm your setup with customs counsel. For the legal line behind all this, see the H350722 checklist. If you'd like help setting up a refund draft workflow, start a free conversation. You walk us through how a refund moves through your office, and we send back a short written read of where AI fits.