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Trump Administration Says It Can't Process Tariff Refunds Because of Computer Problems (theverge.com) 166

Posted by BeauHD from the blame-the-machines dept.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a filing on Friday that it currently cannot process billions in tariff refunds because its import-processing system is "not well suited to a task of this scale." The Verge reports: The CBP's admission comes after the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs imposed by Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) last month. This week, the International Trade Court ruled that importers impacted by the tariffs are entitled to refunds with interest. The CBP estimates that it collected around $166 billion in IEEPA duties as of March 4th, 2026. [...]

The CBP says it currently processes imports through its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system. In the filing, Lord says that using the department's existing technology, it would take more than 4.4 million hours to process refunds for the over 53.2 million entries with IEEPA duties. Despite these current limitations, the CBP says it's "confident" it can develop and launch new capabilities to "streamline and consolidate refunds and interest payments on an importer basis" -- but this could take 45 days. "The process will be simpler and more efficient than the existing functionalities, and CBP will provide guidance on how to file refund declarations in the new system," Lord says.
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Trump Administration Says It Can't Process Tariff Refunds Because of Computer Problems More

Trump Administration Says It Can't Process Tariff Refunds Because of Computer Problems

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  • Let me guess (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 06, 2026 @09:09PM (#66027292)

    The contractor that develops this "simpler and more efficient" system will be a company that, after sifting through all the shell companies, turns out to be owned by Trump.

  • Bitcoins (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sit1963nz ( 934837 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @09:14PM (#66027306)
    The computers are too busy mining bitcoins for Trumps family...

  • That's your fucking problem. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @09:19PM (#66027310) Journal

    Maybe don't fire all your re-employable engineers in a fit of "cost cutting" that didn't actually cut costs, and is now incurring big fucking whoppers by making you look stupendously incompetent after your own DoJ got pantsed by your own stacked court.

    I don't give a shit what your problems are. You stole my money, and your supreme court says you had no right to take it.

    Or, we can start the clock on interest. I think the same 29.99% interest rate that applies from usury limits to past-due credit card balances ought to do it.

    • Re:That's your fucking problem. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by innocent_white_lamb ( 151825 ) on Saturday March 07, 2026 @12:37AM (#66027534)

      The reasonable rate for interest on these amounts is the interest rate the IRS charges people when they are behind on their tax payments, starting from the date they originally collected the illegal tariff from whoever paid it.

    • No matter what, it will be paid by taxes or debt, and only go to corporations, so there's really no point pushing for its return.

      • It's better than nothing. A lot of companies ate those tariffs as losses because it was not clear they were anything but temporary. Sure, some passed the increases to the consumer. But not all. And the worst outcome is letting the perpetrators of the problem profit by it.

        • Re:That's your fucking problem. (Score:4, Insightful)

          by commodore73 ( 967172 ) on Saturday March 07, 2026 @03:05AM (#66027598)
          I disagree. The money that was taken is not the money that would be used to pay it back, and the people who paid the increased costs are not the ones who would get the money either. Any action on this issue will not affect the people that stole it, and will only harm the people from whom it was stolen.
          • There are no innocents in this game. There are those who brazenly stole money, there are those who cheered, and there are those who sat on the sidelines accepting the brazen behaviours. And there are those who complained, and did nothing because they couldn't be bothered. It's only right that this hodge podge of actors work out among themselves who pays for what to whom.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Petersko ( 564140 )

            That money shell game doesn't make sense. Otherwise every penny that vanishes into general coffers is untouchable and lost, no matter the circumstances under which it was collected. "Your honour. I can't pay back the money I stole, because I spent it on food and babysitters. That money is gone. Other money is not the same." Not a valid argument.

            Like it or not, the people who directly paid the tariffs have legal standing. The people downstream of that, unless they have itemized receipts stating the tariffs a

            • Personally, I think punishments only have useful effects if they harm the perpetrators of the offense. So I respectfully disagree, but won't argue further. And I think that this is more of a general statement of fact for US federal finances rather than a conditional clause:

              "every penny that vanishes into general coffers is untouchable and lost, no matter the circumstances under which it was collected"

              • That's fair. I rescind the part about punishment. I stand by the point about making those with legal standing whole.

        • Can we claim reimbursement from the companies that increased prices once they get their tariff refunds?

  • Seems impossible (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hawguy ( 1600213 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @09:20PM (#66027312)

    Seems impossible that it could take 4.4M hours to process 53M entries, that's only about 12 items per hour, or 5 minutes of computer time each. Even a human with a calculator could process the data faster than that.

    • Re: Seems impossible (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AvitarX ( 172628 ) <meNO@SPAMbrandywinehundred.org> on Friday March 06, 2026 @09:34PM (#66027342) Journal

      I can see 12 an hour as an average over a work day for a very clunky system involving a human interface.

      How many people can a bank teller handle on a shift? And that's probably a lot easier to verify.

      • A bank teller is a bad analog because of all the actual paper and ink that is a part of that process. Your instinct is probably in the right direction, in that it will probably take a lot of human intervention for processing, even if there werenâ(TM)t tons of political backpressure.

        • A bank teller is a bad analog because of all the actual paper and ink that is a part of that process.

          There's very little paper and ink involved in a modern bank teller's job. It's 99.9% typing on a computer and doing things little old ladies couldn't do because they don't have the app on their phone.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        How does the cost of throwing manpower at it compare to the cost of delaying the refunds? Every company will be entitled to interest on top, and some will have already gone bankrupt or lost contracts, and have further claims to make.

        My guess would be that the government doesn't have the money, it's been spent (on things that enrich Trump) and now is in panic mode.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Have you ever seen someone process a return at a store that's not really used to them? Or watched a customs officer process anything other than a routine border crossing, for that matter?

      A dozen an hour seems pretty brisk in comparison.

    • Seems impossible that it could take 4.4M hours to process 53M entries, that's only about 12 items per hour, or 5 minutes of computer time each.

      It wouldn't surprise me if they meant wall clock time, especially if there's human review and intervention in some large number of transactions.

  • Tarrif money... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kellin ( 28417 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @09:21PM (#66027314)

    Noemi already basically admitted to what happened to the money .. it all went to newly created shell companies.

  • Let's be realistic (Score:3)

    by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @09:30PM (#66027330) Homepage

    If it's not a refund check directly back to the individual American taxpayers, the Trump administration may as well just keep the damn money. It isn't as if any of the businesses who originally paid the tariffs (and then subsequently passed them onto the consumers) are going to suddenly feel generous and drop prices on their goods after getting refunds.

    • I dunno... Costco might.

    • Re:Let's be realistic (Score:4, Insightful)

      by innocent_white_lamb ( 151825 ) on Saturday March 07, 2026 @12:49AM (#66027542)

      "the Trump administration may as well just keep the damn money."

      Why should they be allowed to keep it under any circumstances?

      Would you tell a thief that since it would be inconvenient for him to return what he stole he might as well keep it?

      It was collected illegally and it should be refunded to those who paid it. Joe the grocer on the corner and Walmart should both get refunded what they are owed, plus interest.

    • Re: Let's be realistic (Score:5, Insightful)

      by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Saturday March 07, 2026 @08:20AM (#66027778)

      This is exactly why bad people do bad things and expect to get away with it. Because of people who end up saying "they may as well keep it". The money is taken by grift and can never be returned to the correct people, that is true. But the point is to punish the people who caused it by making their lives all difficult.

    • If it's not a refund check directly back to the individual American taxpayers, the Trump administration may as well just keep the damn money.

      I disagree. As long as the money winds up in the hands of someone, anyone other than this larcenous administration, that's a win.

      No, it's not fair that the importers will likely keep it. It's also not fair that other prices rose to meet the higher market price and that people got fired. Neither of those last two will be made right. But IMHO, the important part is to keep the ill-gotten goods out of the hands of the evildoers so they aren't rewarded for their evil doing.

  • 'nuff said

  • Where's musk and his xai when they need it? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @09:33PM (#66027340)

    I heard it took him and three of the other scum he picked from the trash 25 kilos of ketamine and four days to rewrite the whole social security system, cannot be his stellar team can't repeat a much simplee task.

    Perhaps the problem is elsewhere, and there's no money to return anymore?

    Have the slashdot trumpistani subjects checked Noem's blanket for crumbs?

    • I heard it took him and three of the other scum he picked from the trash 25 kilos of ketamine and four days to rewrite the whole social security system, cannot be his stellar team can't repeat a much simplee task.

      Were they pissing themselves when they presented the bill?

    • > three of the other scum he picked from the trash 25 kilos of ketamine and four days to rewrite the whole social security system

      And that was before this awesome "AI" crap made it lightning-fast to write any computer program with zero errors, right?

      • I think so, but I'm not sure, there was a lot of talk back then.

        • > there was a lot of talk back then.

          I'm glad all that misleading talk about AI completely automating programming or hyper-enabling actual computer programmers has evaporated.
          • Ooops I forgot to escape my angle braces; that was supposed to end with </snark>

          • Us people will be replaced completely, any day now, says any "AI" vendor, honest!

            Respekt my singularitay!

            • Success by grift is kinda the American way. Look who's in the presidential office - one of the biggest conmen in history. He's like Barnum himself turned into an evil clown.
              • I'm thinking the orange one may have finally bit off more than he can chew with Iran though. I expect dramatic rise in gas prices which will push up all transportation and manufacturing costs causing a pretty big inflation spike in the run up to the election. And yes, I believe Iran is going to be a problem for months/years. How can we forget how long Iraq/Afghanistan took? And Iran has a much bigger military than either of those had. And then we have the Russia thing where Ukraine was going down in a week?

                • I'm thinking the orange one may have finally bit off more than he can chew with Iran though.

                  That is certain, but he won't face any consequences. We will.

                  • He certainly won't get what he deserves, but the R's may grow a spine after the Nov elections if it is a landslide and actually convict him in the senate this go round for fear of whoever is left will get the can in 2028. Remember only 1/3 of the senate goes up every 2 years for election.

                    But as you say, it will be the rest of us to pick up the pieces from this madman. It will take decades if ever for the US to claim back what was lost by this loon. My expectation is never again will the world trust us as b

  • Yeah, sure... (Score:3)

    by TronNerd82 ( 9588972 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @09:56PM (#66027360)

    ...it's purely because the import-processing system isn't built to handle a task of such scale. Totally couldn't be that the administration is just stalling as long as they can, just like they've done every other time they've gotten in hot water for their bullshit.

    For all we know, they could've figuratively (or even literally) dumped water on their server cluster just so they can claim there's a problem while the people the tariffs benefited most can move their money offshore before shit hits the fan. Then they can go and say "we don't have the money we need to give back." The American people get fucked over again, and these uber-rich cunts get to keep the money once things eventually fall through, because the Supreme Court can only drag this case out for so long before they eventually have to call it a loss.

    But that's just my cynical layman's perspective on the whole matter. Perhaps for once in their goddamn existence, the government is actually telling the truth, and there really is a problem with their import-processing system not being able to handle such an abundance of refunds. But given the past history of this administration (even though we're only in the 2nd year - yikes), I feel like there's some attempt at stalling for the purpose of personal gain, like the invasion of Venezuela conveniently happening on the same day the Epstein files were set to be released in their entirety.

    Just a thought.

    • They don't need to stall forever -- there are only two important dates: 2026 midterms and 2028. Afterwards, even if Reps win your election, it won't be Trump's administration, and he doesn't care who ends up paying as long as it doesn't interfere with his opportunities for graft. If he can continue his gravy train till 2028 and his and his friends' ill gotten gains don't get taken back immediately after, all is good.

  • What about the end consumers? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by paulidale ( 6575732 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @09:59PM (#66027364)
    The imports get a nice fat refund (eventually). What about the consumers who paid more for goods? The increases in price were legal (a seller can name any price they want), but it still hurt a lot of people.

  • DT: 'The money I took out of there was incredible' (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tekram ( 8023518 ) on Friday March 06, 2026 @10:18PM (#66027392)

    That was what Trump said in a 2016 Interview about how he gamed the system and 'How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, but Still Earned Millions.'

    https://www.congress.gov/116/m... [congress.gov]

    • Those casinos were probably being used to launder money for Russia and other criminal organizations. There were some investigations in play. They likely folded to avoid the results.

  • LOL! (Score:2)

    by seoras ( 147590 )

    Did anyone else burst out laughing like me when they read that headline?!

  • didn't take 4.4 million hours to calculate the charges to begin with...

    This reminds me of stores- purchase- split second to process and money is gone from your account... refund... can take 5-10 business days to show... :/

  • The dog ate it! HONEST!

  • That a couple of guys showing up in the Oval Office with handcuffs and leg irons would see the problem fixed pretty quickly
  • Funny, their computers can TAKE the money at lightning fast speed. Yet to, I dunno, just print out those same records of who paid what and send the money back... well, our computers just aren't up to the task. Who is still listening to Trump's BS at this point?

  • I'm sorry sir, it doesn't work in reverse.

  • Fixing this can be the new Y2K. Full employment if you're good with the cyber!

  • NO_CASH_ALREADY_EMBEZZELLED

  • Oy Trump, let Musk do it. He will solve this in a week. Computer problems? The US can't write software? Come on, make America great again! Hire a few Indians. They will show you how it is done!
    Dear American programmers, sorry for the insult. I do not mean it. You ARE great. I just wanted to insult El Presidente. Always bragging how great everything is since he is in charge but he is now stopped because the computer says no? What's next? Can't hold elections because there is a little annoying rock in his sh

  • Has anyone else noticed... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by commodore73 ( 967172 ) on Saturday March 07, 2026 @04:20AM (#66027640)
    Has anyone else noticed that the accounts that used to rabidly shill for Trump here seem to have completely stopped the shilling? I think this may indicate that those accounts are managed by actual people with some functional brain cells rather than just domestic and foreign agitators. Recent actions by this administration seem completely indefensible, so I would love to engage with such accounts again.

  • There are no "computer problems", the system was never built with the ability to process tariff refunds in the first place (or so claims someone on Twitter who claims to have been involved with building it).
    So in order to process the refunds that have been ordered by the court, they need to write a totally new feature into the system that was never intended and that no-one is paying to have written (because obviously the government isn't going to pay for something that is only required because they lost in

  • Just do it manually, lots of manpower is readily available at a federal level. First of all, those people currently pre-redacting anything in the Trump-Epstein Files (as trademarked by Jimmy Kimmel) to make sure any hint of a truth about dear leader and his gang never sees the light of day. Another obvious ones is those thousands of ICE agents who could use a break from inventing fake problems to pretend to work on.

  • It's very reliable (Working for almost a century at this point) but if you make unexpected disruptive changes like tariffs you are going to have a bad time.

  • Notice how all the people defending Trump are gone?

  • Most companies will have passed on those tariffs to their customers. So they are now in for a windfall which I seriously doubt they'll pass back to the customers, i.e. you guys, the normal day-to-day US citizens. Call me a cynic...
  • We haven't heard from you in a while. As you know, the best President we have ever had, President Trump, is fighting for our nation's survival right now. Shortly after the Board of Peace meeting Iran forced us to attack it because it was 1-2 weeks away from developing thermonuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons you know what those are? So we had to attack. We had to. So the president and the administration is very busy, very busy working hard for you.

    We, in his righteously glorious administration are inundated

  • Is anyone seriously expecting the tariff refund to be processed during this administration's time? It's going to be so drawn out.

  • Government is extremely efficient at taking your money. Giving it back, not so much.

  • "I don't know what's wrong?!? I just can't issue the refund?!? Who's responsible here?!?!!!"
  • I know the big delveviery companies are taking legal action to recover it saying they paid it but isnt this double dippinge as they arent out of pocket anyways. Ssurely its the customer who should get it because they ended up paying the import tarif plus an admin fee.

  • U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a filing on Friday that it currently cannot process billions in tariff refunds because its import-processing system is "not well suited to a task of this scale."

    That's the same reason I'm not able to calculate my 2025 federal income taxes! I guess we'll just call it even.

  • It reminds me Tommy Flanagan from SNL.

  • there shouldn't be any multi threading/race condition issues. so what problems could there be? should just be a text processing program.

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