IEEPA TARIFF REFUND RECOVERY FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
You paid the tariff, even if you're not the importer.Here is how colleges and universities recover that money.
Your campus suppliers were the Importer of Record.
CBP's refund goes to them. We recover your share.
No retainers. No hourly billing. You pay nothing unless we recover.
The Opportunity
The downstream buyer opportunity in higher education procurement
Colleges and universities purchase dining & athletic, lab, IT, and facilities equipment through campus suppliers and distributors who typically serve as the Importer of Record. If tariff costs were passed through in your procurement or capital equipment contracts over the past year, the refund on that duty is going to your supplier, not to your institution.
The Background
The refund is flowing back to your supplier — not to your institution.
Between February 2025 and February 2026, importers paid more than $166 billion in IEEPA tariffs, a program that touched everything from lab and research equipment to campus IT and furniture. On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled those tariffs unlawful, and CBP is now refunding the money. But the refund goes only to the Importer of Record (IOR) who filed the entry, typically the campus supplier, equipment vendor, or facilities distributor that supplied you, not your institution.
IEEPA tariffs collected nationwide, Feb 2025 to Feb 2026, across every sector including higher education supply chains
Range of IEEPA tariff rates across 60+ countries over the life of the program, from the universal baseline to peak country-specific rates, applied to imported lab, IT, and facilities equipment
Expected recovery on purchased imported lab, IT, and facilities equipment (research instruments, furniture, and campus technology)
Why you cannot file with CBP directly
The CAPE refund portal accepts claims only from the Importer of Record named on the entry summary. Downstream buyers, including universities, colleges, and their auxiliary departments that purchased lab, IT, or facilities equipment through an importing supplier, have no direct administrative pathway with U.S. Customs.
Spend categories
Where this shows up in higher education
IT & AV
Campus technology, classroom AV, and network infrastructure.
Research & Lab
Lab instruments, research equipment, and scientific supplies.
Furniture & FF&E
Furniture and fixtures for academic and residential spaces.
Facilities & MRO
Maintenance, repair, and operations supplies across campus.
Dining & Athletics
Dining service equipment and athletics/recreation gear.
How recovery works
Our five step process
The path runs through commercial channels, not CBP. The financial analysis is built by Sagemont using purchasing reports, invoices, purchase orders, supply agreements, tariff-related communications, and pricing notices. We map the pass-through, quantify your share, and work with your supplier for the portion of the refund attributable to costs you actually paid.
- 1
Intake & Estimates
Sagemont analyzes a single vendor transaction report, accompanied by all pricing communications from vendors, and provides estimates on the tariff recovery per supplier. This is a very light lift for clients.
- 2
Full Tariff Analysis
We pull invoices, purchase orders and vendor contracts to build on the initial analysis and map the exact tariff pass-through per supplier.
- 3
Supplier Communication
We work amicably with your suppliers on your behalf to present the analysis and follow up.
- 4
Methodology Review
Our team will review and validate the supplier's refund calculation and allocation against our analysis.
- 5
Tariff Refund Recovery
Recovered funds flow to you.
Contingency fees
No Recovery. No Fee.
We operate on a 100% contingency fee structure. There are zero upfront costs — if there is no recovery, you owe absolutely nothing.
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