Our Services

What we do

We do the work to recover your IEEPA refund — so your team doesn't have to.

TTM International provides IEEPA refund recovery services to help businesses reclaim Trump tariffs owed following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2026 ruling.

We manage everything from identifying eligible entries to filing with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Your team stays focused on running your business. We focus on recovering what you're owed.

What sets us apart

Thirty Years of Exactly This Work

IEEPA tariff refund recovery and VAT reclaim recovery are, at their core, the same discipline: identifying overpaid duties, auditing entries across multiple brokers, navigating government filing systems, managing hard deadlines, and resolving the corporate complexity that leaves most claims incomplete. TTM has been doing exactly this work since 1993 — for over 1,100 companies across four continents.

Tax Recovery Is All We Do

Unlike large advisory firms where IEEPA refunds are one service line among many, TTM operates with a sole focus on recovering IEEPA tariffs to ensure every recoverable penny is pursued.

Experts in Corporate Complexity

Every engagement begins with a thorough examination of a client's expense patterns, corporate structure, and operational footprint — including subsidiaries, divisions, and industry-specific considerations — to ensure that every recoverable benefit is identified and pursued. This methodical approach to scoping is what distinguishes a complete claim from a partial one, and it reflects TTM's commitment to recovering everything a client is rightfully owed, not merely what is most straightforward to claim.

Warehouse worker managing import cargo — TTM International IEEPA refund recovery services
What we offer

Each of our IEEPA refund recovery services covers the full Trump tariff recovery lifecycle — from audit and quantification through to ACE portal enrollment and refund receipt.

01 · Audit

Comprehensive Auditing

A thorough review of your import activity across all brokers and entry points, identifying every IEEPA-affected transaction and mapping its liquidation status to determine the appropriate recovery path for each entry. With forward thinking, we work with you to establish a system of records and accounts for aiding future claims.

Entry Review
02 · Quantification

Refund Quantification and Claim Preparation

With a consolidated view of your entries, we calculate your expected refund with applicable interest and prepare a complete refund-readiness package — including entry summaries, payment proofs, and the full document trail required for submission to CBP.

Claim Package
03 · Advisory

Pass-Through Assessment and Advisory

Where a business absorbed tariff costs through supplier pricing, intercompany arrangements, or cost-plus contracts but was not the Importer of Record (IOR), we quantify the pass-through amount and provide advisory support through any negotiation process.

Non-IOR Recovery
04 · Filing

Protest Filing

The standard mechanisms for duty recovery — Protests for liquidated entries and Post Summary Corrections (PSC) for unliquidated entries — form the basis of all tariff processes. We manage all filings and actively track deadlines to ensure no eligible claim is missed and no window closes without action.

Protests + PSCs
05 · Enrollment

ACH and ACE Enrollment Support

As of February 6, 2026, CBP issues all refunds electronically via Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfer through the ACE portal. For internationally based businesses and non-resident importers, TTM can act as a designated recipient under CBP Form 4811, receiving refunds directly on a foreign importer's behalf.

ACE Portal
Tell us about your business. We'll handle your refund.
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How we charge

Fees that work for your business.

TTM's fee structure is tailored to the scope and circumstances of each engagement. We work with clients to agree an arrangement that reflects the nature of the claim, the complexity of the work, and what makes most sense given the expected recovery.

Transparent from the outset

Fee structure, scope, and timelines are agreed and set out clearly before any work begins. There are no hidden costs and no surprises at the end of an engagement.

Flexible arrangements

Depending on the nature and scale of the claim, TTM can work on a percentage-of-recovery, fixed-fee, or hybrid basis — whichever best aligns the interests of both parties.

Initial assessment

A scoping review to assess your eligibility and estimate your potential refund is available at a fixed fee, providing a clear picture of your position before committing to a full engagement.

FAQ

Your customs broker plays an essential role in your import operations — but that role is compliance and logistics, not claims recovery. The distinction matters when it comes to IEEPA refunds.

A broker can file a CAPE Declaration for entries they submitted on your behalf, and some may offer to do so. However, their incentive is to process the filing efficiently, not to maximise what you recover. Where TTM adds distinct value is in the complete picture — auditing across all brokers, consolidating your full IEEPA exposure, and resolving the complexities that most brokers aren't positioned to invest time in.

The goal isn't to replace your broker relationship. It's to make sure nothing is left on the table.

Trade law firms bring genuine expertise to complex customs disputes — but their model is built around litigation, and litigation is not the primary route to an IEEPA refund. That misalignment has practical consequences for most importers.

For the majority of importers, the path to an IEEPA refund runs through CBP's administrative process, not the courtroom. That process requires thorough entry-level analysis, accurate documentation, and clean filings. TTM operates at the intersection of tax recovery discipline and trade compliance — handling the full process, from entry audit to refund receipt, on a model that aligns our fee directly with your outcome.

A CBP protest is a formal written challenge submitted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection disputing the assessed duties on an already-liquidated entry. A protest filed under 19 U.S.C. § 1514 is not the official route to an IEEPA refund — the CAPE system is. However, filing a protective protest has been widely recommended by trade attorneys as a precautionary measure for liquidated entries.1

During the CIT proceedings in Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States, the government stated on the record that "liquidation will not affect the availability of refunds" — a position that significantly reduces the risk that a failure to protest will permanently bar a refund on liquidated entries.2

That said, CAPE is a new, phased system operating at unprecedented scale. For higher-value claims or entries not yet covered by Phase 1, a protective protest filed within the 180-day window from liquidation preserves a legal fallback if the administrative process stalls or a claim is rejected. TTM evaluates whether a protective protest is warranted for each client's entries individually.

1 19 U.S.C. § 1514 — Cornell Legal Information Institute →    2 Atmus Filtration, Inc. v. United States — Justia →

The parallel runs deeper than it might first appear — and it is rooted in TTM's history.

When TTM was founded in 1993, the European VAT refund system for non-established businesses was still a relatively new framework. The processes were unfamiliar, the administrative requirements varied significantly by country, and the systems through which claims were processed were far from mature. There was no established playbook. Businesses that were entitled to refunds frequently left money unclaimed simply because they did not know the process existed, or found it too complex to navigate without specialist help.

TTM built its practice in exactly that environment — learning the system as it evolved, developing the workflows, relationships, and expertise needed to recover funds reliably on clients' behalf. Over thirty years, those early efforts helped shape the VAT reclaim landscape into the more structured, codified process it is today.

CAPE is at a strikingly similar moment. It launched in April 2026 as a phased system, with later phases still to be defined and the full scope of its complexity still emerging. But having lived through the early years of the European VAT refund system — and watched it develop from an unfamiliar process into a mature one — TTM understands how these systems tend to evolve. We know which complications surface first, where the gaps between policy and practice tend to appear, and what importers need to do now to be well positioned as the process matures.

That institutional knowledge is not something that can be acquired quickly. It comes from having been there before.

View the full FAQ

Let's start with a conversation.

Tell us about your business. We'll work on your refund.

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Trade professionals

Do Your Clients Have Unclaimed Refunds?

TTM welcomes the opportunity to work alongside the professionals already serving an importer's logistics and compliance needs. Licensed customs brokers, freight forwarders, and bonded warehouses each occupy a critical role in the import process — and in many cases, a collaborative approach delivers the best outcome for the businesses we both serve.

Where a trade professional has identified a client with a potential IEEPA claim but lacks the capacity or specialist expertise to manage the recovery in full, TTM is well placed to step in as a dedicated claims partner. Get in touch →

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