March 4, 2026 3:40 PM, EST
The Trump administration confirmed in a new court filing that it will pay interest on refunds that it ultimately must make after the Supreme Court struck down the president’s contested global tariffs.
U.S. officials haven’t yet committed to returning all of the billions of dollars in duties that importers already paid or how a refund process should work after the justices announced their ruling last month. The interest question hasn’t been central to the legal wrangling but underscores the massive financial stakes.
The administration could owe an additional $700 million in interest for each month that passes, according to a report released earlier this week by the Cato Institute. The government collected approximately $170 billion in tariffs at issue in the court fight, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
A senior trade official told a judge in a written declaration March 4 that “any validated refund of IEEPA duties would include interest.”
