CAPE Refund Not Received: Why Your Payment Didn't Arrive and What to Do
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TL;DR – If your refund date passed and nothing arrived, start with REV-613 in ACE. If you show up there, your ACH was rejected, and the refund can be reissued once you fix your bank enrollment. If not, check REV-603: "Sent to Treasury" is not the same as paid, and "Funds Diverted" means an offset. Also check timing: Extended or Suspended entries pay only at liquidation, and refunds arrive in batches by liquidation date, so a first payment followed by silence is normal.
The three reasons your refund didn't arrive
A Refund Date in ES-003 is when CBP expects to pay, not proof that money is in your account. Between issuance and receipt, three things can stop payment:
1. ACH rejected. Your bank account information in ACE is missing, outdated, or set up in the wrong place. CBP rejects a certified refund when it has no ACH banking details for you (FR 2025-24171). The refund can be reissued once you fix it. Importers report this as the most common reason.
2. Offset applied. CBP netted an outstanding debt against your refund before it left the door. You received less than expected, or nothing at all if the debt exceeded the refund. We have not seen CBP send advance notice.
3. Timing. The refund hasn't actually processed yet. Unliquidated entries are liquidated 45 days after acceptance, and CBP's 60 to 90 day payment window runs from acceptance, not from the Refund Date appearing in ES-003 (CSMS #68340863). Two timing patterns confuse people:
- Accepted, but Extended or Suspended. CAPE accepts these and calculates the refund at once, but pays only when the entry liquidates. There is no predictable date.
- Payments in waves. CBP consolidates refunds by IOR (or its Form 4811 party) and liquidation date. If your entries liquidate on different dates, you get several payments at different times. Many importers saw a first payment and then weeks of nothing while other entries waited to liquidate.
The first step is figuring out which category you're in.
Step 1: Pull REV-613 in ACE
REV-613 is the ACH Rejected Refunds Report. CBP lists it for refunds "rejected due to incomplete ACH Refund enrollment" (CSMS #68536553).
In ACE Portal, go to Reports, then Standard Reports, and find REV-613. If your IOR appears in this report, CBP tried to pay you and the ACH transfer failed. The refund is not lost: it can be reissued once you fix the enrollment and notify CBP.
Some importers have seen the reason "SAP ACH rejected" on some entries of a claim while others paid. CBP has not explained that reason publicly; the fix is the same Replacement Refund Instructions below.
If you're not in REV-613, move to the next step.
Step 2: Check REV-615 and REV-603
REV-603 (Trade Refund Report) shows each refund's Refund Secondary Status (CSMS #68536553):
- Sent to Treasury: CBP has passed it to Treasury. Not yet in your bank.
- Treasury Issued: Treasury has sent the payment. If the bank shows less than the full amount, see the Treasury Offset Program below.
- Funds Diverted: CBP offset part or all of it against a debt (Step 4).
- Check/ACH Returned: the payment bounced. Fix your ACH enrollment (Step 3).
REV-603 is empty until the refund goes to Treasury. That is not an error.
REV-615 (CAPE Details Refunds Report) builds on REV-603 with entry-level detail for CAPE declarations that have been sent to Treasury (CSMS #68536553). If it is blank, your refund may simply not have reached Treasury yet.
ES-022 (CAPE Entry Summary Report) shows what CAPE calculated per entry, with principal and interest separately. Use it to see what you should receive.
Step 3: Understand the most common ACH problem
The single most frequent reason for no payment is a setup error that's easy to miss: ACH for duty payments is not the same as ACH for refunds.
CBP requires a separate enrollment specifically for receiving refunds. Even if you've been paying IEEPA duties via ACH for years, and even if you have ACH configured in your ACE account for outgoing duty payments, you may not have the refund-specific enrollment set up. ACH Refund is its own CBP program: "To receive refunds after February 6, 2026, most refund recipients must enroll in CBP's ACH Refund program" (Troutman, Jan 7, 2026). Importers report that being set up to pay duties by ACH did not enroll them for refunds.
To add or update ACH refund information: log into ACE Portal, then Accounts, Importer sub-account, ACH Refund Authorization tab. This is separate from general ACH payment settings. Since February 6, 2026 CBP issues refunds electronically, and a certified refund is rejected when the banking details are missing (FR 2025-24171).
Updating the bank information does not resend the payment by itself. To have it reissued, complete the ACH Refund application and notify CBP's Refunds Team (FR 2025-24171), following CBP's "Replacement Refund Instructions" (CSMS #68315804). Questions about rejected ACH payments go to frn-achrefundsupport@cbp.dhs.gov; include your CAPE claim number.
Step 4: Check for an offset
If REV-603 shows payment was issued but the amount is lower than you expected, or no payment appears at all, CBP may have applied the offset provision. CBP checks for unpaid debts before it issues a refund, and pays the IEEPA duties minus any unpaid bills (CSMS #68340863). We have not seen CBP send a separate notice; the sign is "Funds Diverted" in REV-603.
To check for outstanding debts in ACE, navigate to your Importer account and look for open duty bills, penalty notices, or bond claims. If you find an unpaid obligation that approximately matches the missing amount, that's the likely explanation.
If REV-603 shows "Treasury Issued" for the full amount but your bank received less, the Treasury Offset Program may have taken part of it for another federal debt (SBA, IRS and others). The bank line then usually reads TCS TREAS 449 instead of CBP TREAS 310. CBP cannot help with that one: call the TOP line at 800-304-3107.
If you believe the offset was applied incorrectly, for example, against a debt you're actively disputing, consult a licensed trade attorney. Troutman reports that CBP has offset IEEPA refunds against amounts it says importers owe, including disputed debts, and flags due process concerns where an offset reaches amounts still under protest or litigation (Troutman, Oct 2, 2026). Importers with open disputes should review this before assuming an offset is final.
Step 5: Rule out timing
If REV-613 is clear, REV-615 shows your entries are still in process, and no offset is visible, the refund likely hasn't been issued yet. Two situations where timing is the explanation:
Unliquidated entries still waiting to liquidate. CBP targets liquidation within 45 days of acceptance for unliquidated entries. If your entries accepted in late April, they may not liquidate until mid-June. The refund follows liquidation. A Refund Date showing in ES-003 for an unliquidated entry is an estimate, not a confirmed payment date.
Still inside the 60-90 day payment window. The window runs from acceptance, not from when you uploaded the file. If your declaration accepted in early May after validation, 60-90 days puts the earliest likely payment date in early July. The Refund Date field in ES-003 reflects when CBP expects to pay, but "expects" is not a guarantee, and the window can shift if compliance review occurs.
See When Will I Get My Refund? for the full timeline breakdown.
Quick reference: which report tells you what
| Report | Where to find it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| REV-613 | ACE → Reports → Standard Reports | Refunds rejected for incomplete ACH Refund enrollment: fix it and ask for reissue |
| REV-603 | ACE → Reports → Standard Reports | Refund status after it reaches Treasury: Sent to Treasury, Treasury Issued, Funds Diverted, Check/ACH Returned |
| REV-615 | ACE → Reports → Standard Reports | Entry-level CAPE refund detail once sent to Treasury |
| ES-003 | ACE → Reports → Folders → Trade → Importer → Entry Summary | Refund Date and Refund Amount per entry |
Contacts for follow-up
Rejected ACH, reissued refunds, paper-check waiver: frn-achrefundsupport@cbp.dhs.gov: include your CAPE claim number.
CAPE technical questions and refund amounts: IEEPARefunds@cbp.dhs.gov: include your CAPE claim number and a brief description of the issue.
General IEEPA refund questions: traderelations@cbp.dhs.gov
ACE technical issues: ACE Account Service Desk (ASD) at 866-530-4172 or ace.support@cbp.dhs.gov
Frequently asked questions
My refund date in ES-003 was May 5 but nothing came. Where is the money? Start with REV-613. If you appear there, your ACH was rejected and the refund can be reissued: fix your ACH Refund Authorization in the Importer sub-account, then follow the Replacement Refund Instructions and write to frn-achrefundsupport@cbp.dhs.gov with your claim number. If you're not in REV-613, check REV-603 to see whether the refund was sent to Treasury or issued.
I have ACH set up for duty payments. Isn't that the same? No. CBP requires a separate enrollment for receiving refunds. The ACH Refund Authorization tab in your Importer sub-account is distinct from general ACH payment configuration. Many importers who've paid duties via ACH for years never set up the refund-specific enrollment. Log into your Importer sub-account and check that tab explicitly.
CBP held my refund. Does it expire or disappear? No. A refund rejected for missing bank details is not lost. To have it reissued, complete the ACH Refund application and notify CBP's Refunds Team (FR 2025-24171). CBP's Replacement Refund Instructions explain the steps.
My refund was less than I calculated. Why? Two main reasons. First, CBP may have applied the offset provision: any outstanding customs debts are netted against the refund before payment without advance notice. Second, a rate period issue may have changed the refund calculation (9903.01.63 at 125% only ran April 10 to May 13, 2025; entries near those dates may have had different IEEPA rates than assumed). Check for open CBP obligations and verify entry dates for anything filed near those rate change boundaries.
REV-613 shows my refund rejected. What exactly happens next? Log into your Importer sub-account, open the ACH Refund Authorization tab, and confirm or update your US bank account information. Then follow the Replacement Refund Instructions and write to frn-achrefundsupport@cbp.dhs.gov with your CAPE claim number. The refund is reissued only after the account is corrected.
My refund date passed but REV-615 still shows processing. Is something wrong? Not necessarily. For unliquidated entries, the Refund Date in ES-003 is an estimate based on expected liquidation and the 60-90 day window. If your entries haven't reached their 45-day liquidation target yet, the Refund Date may shift. REV-615 fills in only once the refund has been sent to Treasury, so watch ES-022 and REV-603 in the meantime. If entries show accepted status but no refund has issued after 90 days from acceptance, email IEEPARefunds@cbp.dhs.gov.
Can I change which bank account receives my refund after filing? Yes: update the ACH Refund Authorization tab in your Importer sub-account before payment issues. Once a payment clears to the account on file, it cannot be redirected. If you're trying to change a Form 4811 designee's bank information, the designee must update their own ACE account.