The first wave of tariff refund checks began going out to businesses this week.
Heavy-truck maker Oshkosh Corporation (OSK) and toymaker Basic Fun confirmed receiving partial refunds.
Oshkosh CFO Matt Field said in a statement that the refunds so far represented only “an initial portion of our total claims submitted.”
Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun, said their refunds so far represented just 5% of the company’s total claims.
“So far, the funds are trickling out, but they have started,” Foreman said.
Overall totals for this first wave of refunds weren’t immediately available. The US Customs and Border Protection is managing the process and didn’t immediately respond to Yahoo Finance about the size and number of this first round of payments.
Businesses have been navigating a four-step refund process since a refund portal opened last month. That followed a US Supreme Court decision striking down President Trump’s blanket second-term tariffs imposed under what he deemed an economic emergency. The court said the president didn’t have the power to impose tariffs, but didn’t dictate whether refunds needed to be paid.
President Trump speaks to members of the press Tuesday before departing for a visit to Beijing that he suggested will be heavily focused on trade. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images) · Anadolu via Getty Images
Trump has harshly criticized the ruling since it was handed down in February and has zeroed in on the refunds in recent days. In a radio interview on Tuesday, he said “we’ll fight” the refunds even as his team has moved forward relatively quickly on the refunds themselves.
At stake in total is an estimated $166 billion in tariffs, plus interest, that the government estimates are eligible for refunds.
Also on Tuesday, the Treasury Department’s monthly statement showed that tariff revenue came in at $22.12 billion last month, a slight decrease from March’s reading of $22.15 billion.
Yet that still marks the sixth consecutive monthly decline, to cap a nearly 30% drop from last October, when monthly tariff revenue peaked at $31.35 billion.
Tuesday’s release doesn’t include any of this week’s refunds — those will show up in May numbers.
‘Phase one’ of the tariff refund process
Not all tariffs are eligible during “phase one” of this program, but the government has moved more quickly than many trade experts had expected and promised that “more complex refund scenarios” will eventually be addressed.
Government checks are going to businesses, but those funds could potentially be passed along to consumers. At least 17 lawsuits have reportedly been filed against companies, including FedEx (FDX), Costco (COST), and UPS (UPS), by consumers who say the companies would be wrong to keep any money they get back.
Shipping companies were the first to make a strong tariff refund push, even as Trump applied political pressure on businesses to forgo the money. FedEx, UPS, and DHL (DHL.DE) all paired their requests with promises to pass along the money to their customers.
