CAPE Errors That Block Your IEEPA Refund, and the Ways Out

TL;DR – Some problems stop CAPE from paying an entry, but very few close the refund for good. Entries liquidated more than 80 days ago are outside CAPE unless you sue, and there is now a court path and a certified class for them. Open protests and some entry types block filing. Once an entry is in a CAPE Declaration, ACE refuses Post Summary Corrections on it while the refund is in process (Condition Code 864). Audit your ES-003 before you submit.

1. Liquidated more than 80 days ago

This is the most common reason an entry gets no CAPE refund, partly because the cutoff does not appear anywhere on the CAPE submission screen.

CAPE Phases 1 and 2 only accept entries liquidated within 80 days of your filing date. CBP can reliquidate an entry on its own only within 90 days of liquidation (19 U.S.C. § 1501), and CAPE uses 80 of those days (CSMS #68340863; H&K, June 15, 2026). Liquidation is when CBP formally finalizes an entry. It happens automatically, typically around a year after the entry date, and you may get no direct notice, so check the Liquidation Date in your ES-003.

Past the 80-day cutoff, CAPE rejects the entry with ENTRY SUMMARY IS IN FINAL LIQUIDATION STATUS. There is no override inside CAPE. That does not mean the money is gone. Three things can still happen:

• A suit at the Court of International Trade. Importers who sue under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i) get a court order to reliquidate their older entries and access to CAPE Phase 3, which opened October 6, 2026 for plaintiffs only (Troutman, Oct 2, 2026). The time limit is two years. When that clock starts is not settled, so plan around the earliest possible date, about February 4, 2027 (DWT, Oct 14, 2026).
• The class. On October 8, 2026 the court certified a class of importers of record who paid IEEPA duties from February 1, 2025 to February 19, 2026 and did not file their own suit (Slip Op. 26-123). The class has no refund order yet.
• The appeal. The government's appeal of the April 17 refund order is still pending at the Federal Circuit (Nos. 2026-1895, -1897, -1899). See the appeal status page.

A Form 19 protest is not the path here. The court held in AGS v. CBP that collecting IEEPA duties was not a protestable CBP decision (AGS v. CBP). Whether to sue depends on how much is at stake on your older entries. Do not rely on the class to protect the two-year deadline: no court has decided whether it does for IEEPA. Talk to a customs attorney.

How to check: Pull your ES-003 from ACE Portal with the Liquidation Date field enabled. That date, measured against your planned filing date, tells you which entries are still inside the 80-day window. A blank Liquidation Date usually means the entry is unliquidated, which CAPE accepts.

2. Open or suspended protest on the entry

CBP states this in its CAPE rules: entries with an open or suspended protest cannot be filed, and CBP allows importers to withdraw an IEEPA-only protest if the entry liquidated 80 days ago or less (CSMS #68340863). The error is PROTEST ON ENTRY. Troutman reports that open protests are excluded from every CAPE phase (Troutman, Aug 13, 2026).

The block applies regardless of what the protest was about. A valuation dispute from two years ago, an unresolved classification challenge: if the protest is open or suspended, CAPE rejects the entry.

This now catches importers who filed "protective" Form 19 protests on IEEPA entries. One importer reported on Reddit in October getting PROTEST ON ENTRY when filing in Phase 3 with a suspended protest. CBP has not published how to withdraw a protest for Phase 3.

Withdrawing a protest clears the entry for CAPE, but gives up whatever the protest was meant to do. If the protest was about something other than IEEPA, do not withdraw it without a customs attorney. Ask your broker which protests are open on your entries before building the Declaration.

3. Excluded entry types

CAPE rejects several kinds of entries. In Phase 1, CBP excluded entries flagged for reconciliation and Type 09 reconciliation entries, entries linked to drawback and Type 47, Type 08, entries with an "open" or "closed" status such as TIB (Type 23), AD/CVD entries still waiting on Commerce, and entries whose IEEPA duties were paid by a surety (CSMS #68340863).

Since then, two things changed:

• Phase 2 (June 29, 2026) accepts Types 01, 02 and 06 flagged for reconciliation, as long as no Type 09 has been filed and they are inside the 80-day window. Flagged entries with a Type 09 already filed wait for a "future phase" with no date (CSMS #69035485).
• Warehouse entries. Since July 7, 2026, Types 21 and 22 are rejected with ENTRY TYPE NOT ALLOWED. File the withdrawals (Types 31, 32, 34, 38) instead (CSMS #69127837).

Drawback claims are excluded from every phase (Troutman, Aug 13, 2026). CBP asks importers to file CAPE before drawback (CSMS #68340863).

These do not come back as "Needs Review." They are rejected. The issue usually shows up when a broker pulls every China entry from a date range and passes the full list to CAPE without filtering by type. Confirm with your broker, especially if your business does any TIB, warehouse or drawback work.

4. HTS rate period mismatches

This does not block the entry. It produces a refund that does not match your estimate.

9903.01.63 at 125% applied only from April 10 through May 13, 2025 (CSMS #64701128). From 12:01 a.m. EDT on May 14, 2025, China moved to 10% under 9903.01.25 (CSMS #65029337). Entries coded 9903.01.63 outside that window do not carry the 125% rate.

9903.01.24 dropped from 20% to 10% for goods entered on or after 12:01 a.m. EST on November 10, 2025 (EO 14357, signed November 4, 2025). For entries near that date, check the exact entry date before you trust a refund estimate. The rate that applied on the entry date governs what gets refunded.

For low-value entries, the difference is minor. For entries with high duty amounts, the gap is significant.

5. Post Summary Corrections are locked after CAPE accepts the entry

This does not block the refund. It blocks your ability to correct anything once you have filed.

Once an entry is in a CAPE Declaration, ACE refuses Post Summary Corrections on it while the CAPE refund is in process: Condition Code 864, PSC NOT ALLOWED – REFUND REQUESTED (CSMS #68397097). CBP tells importers not to file a PSC for IEEPA lines at all, and to file any other PSC before CAPE (CSMS #68340863).

The block covers the whole entry, not just the IEEPA lines. If there is a data error on the entry summary (wrong entered value, wrong HTS sequence, goods value on the IEEPA line instead of the commodity line), it cannot be corrected through a PSC while the refund is in process.

The same goes for refund routing. A refund goes to a Form 4811 notify party only if that party is on file in your ACE profile and its importer number is in Box 28 of the CF-7501 (CSMS #67648307). Set that up before you file.

Correct sequence: Find data errors on target entries. Correct them by PSC. Confirm the PSC has processed in ACE. Then include the entry in the CAPE Declaration.

For PSC routing and Form 4811 setup, see PSC before CAPE.

6. You are not the Importer of Record

CAPE pays the Importer of Record (IOR), or the party the IOR named on Form 4811 (CSMS #68340863). If the IOR on the entry is a carrier or logistics provider, the refund goes to them.

This affects more importers than it seems. Express carriers file as IOR on many DDP and courier shipments. If a carrier name is the IOR on your CF-7501, you cannot file CAPE on that entry yourself. UPS, DHL and FedEx have each said they will pass refunds to the party that paid once CBP pays them (CBS, Apr 21, 2026; DHL).

How to check: The IOR field on the CF-7501 for each entry is the authoritative source. You can also add an IOR column to your ES-003 report. If the entries do not appear in your ES-003 under your EIN at all, you are not the IOR on them. See Am I the Importer of Record? for a full walkthrough.

7. Non-IEEPA tariff codes in the declaration

CAPE covers IEEPA duties only. Those are HTS codes in the 9903.01.xx and 9903.02.xx ranges. An entry with none of them is rejected with NO IEEPA HTS ON ENTRY.

Three other programs look similar in the data but are not IEEPA:

Section 301 China tariffs (HTS 9903.88.xx). There is no refund path for these. An entry can carry both Section 301 and IEEPA lines; CAPE processes the IEEPA part and leaves the Section 301 duties in place. The newer Section 301 forced-labor tariffs (since July 24, 2026) are being challenged in court, but there is no refund process for them either (Troutman, Oct 12, 2026).

Section 232 (steel and aluminum, HTS 9903.80.xx and 9903.81.xx). Not IEEPA.

Section 122 (9903.03.xx), the 10% surcharge that ran from February 24 to July 24, 2026. It is not in CAPE at all. See What Is Section 122.

If your broker filters entries by country of origin (China) rather than by HTS code range, non-IEEPA entries end up in the Declaration and get rejected. That is easy to fix before you file.

Before you submit: a pre-filing checklist

The entries that cause the most damage are not the ones CAPE rejects. They are the ones CAPE accepts with a data error that is then locked in place.

Before building the Declaration:

1. Pull your ES-003 with the Liquidation Date field enabled
2. Separate entries liquidated more than 80 days before your filing date. They need a different path (court or class), not CAPE
3. Confirm with your broker which entries have open or suspended protests
4. Remove drawback entries, Type 09 and Type 08, TIB, and warehouse Types 21 and 22 (file the withdrawals instead)
5. Check HTS ranges: 9903.01.xx and 9903.02.xx only
6. For 9903.01.63 or 9903.01.24 entries near the rate-change dates, confirm which rate applied on the entry date
7. Check the IOR on any entry that moved DDP or through a carrier-brokered service
8. Review high-value entries for errors that need a PSC. The correction window closes at CAPE acceptance

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I withdraw a protest and then file CAPE on that entry?

Yes. CBP allows importers to withdraw an IEEPA-only protest and then file CAPE (CBP's words are "may withdraw") (CSMS #68340863). This applies when the entry liquidated 80 days ago or less; a suspended protest needs the suspension lifted first. If the protest is about something else, withdrawing it gives that up, so do not withdraw it without a customs attorney.

What happens to entries liquidated more than 80 days ago?

CAPE Phases 1 and 2 will not take them, whether they liquidated 81 days ago or 300. Importers who sued get a reliquidation order and use Phase 3. Everyone else who paid IEEPA duties from February 1, 2025 to February 19, 2026 and has not sued is likely in the certified class, which has no refund order yet (Slip Op. 26-123). Firms disagree on whether importers with large amounts should file their own suit (Troutman, Oct 12, 2026). Talk to a customs attorney.

Should I file a Form 19 protest to protect older entries?

Not as your main path. After AGS v. CBP, a protest does not get IEEPA duties back (AGS v. CBP), and an open protest blocks a CAPE filing (CSMS #68340863). Some firms still see a protective protest as cheap insurance. Talk to a customs attorney.

If I include an excluded entry type in my Declaration by mistake, does it affect the rest of the entries?

No. Entry-level rejections do not affect the rest of the Declaration. The excluded entry is rejected and the others process normally. Download the Claim Details file after submission to see which entries were accepted.

Is there any way to correct a data error on an entry after CAPE accepts it?

Not through a PSC while the CAPE refund is in process (Condition Code 864). If you find a data error after acceptance, email IEEPARefunds@cbp.dhs.gov with the entry number and describe the issue.

Does CAPE have a submission deadline?

CBP has not published a closing date for CAPE filings. The real clock is the 80-day window: every day, more liquidated entries pass it. For entries already past it, the clock that matters is the two-year limit to sue. When that clock starts is not settled, so plan around the earliest possible date, about February 4, 2027 (DWT, Oct 14, 2026).

Sources: CSMS #68340863, CSMS #69035485, CSMS #69127837, CSMS #68397097, AGS v. CBP, Slip Op. 26-123.