Tariff Rebate for Your Business

A tariff rebate for businesses refers to a refund of import duties paid on goods that are subsequently re-exported, used in manufacturing for export, or destroyed. The primary mechanism in the U.S. is the duty drawback program, administered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Unlike proposed consumer rebate checks, duty drawback is an established federal program with defined eligibility rules. Businesses can recover up to 99% of the duties originally paid.

Several legislative proposals have circulated — including the American Consumer Tariff Rebate Act of 2026 and the Trump Tariff Rebate Act — that would distribute refund checks to consumers. As of now, none have been signed into law and no distribution timeline has been confirmed. For businesses that directly paid import tariffs, duty drawback is the existing, operational refund mechanism available today.

Consumer tariff rebate proposals aim to reimburse individuals for the downstream price increases caused by tariffs and remain legislative proposals. Duty drawback is an existing U.S. government program that directly refunds import duties to the businesses that paid them — importers, manufacturers, and retailers — when qualifying conditions are met such as re-export, use in manufacturing for export, or destruction of goods.

Businesses that import goods and subsequently re-export them, use imported materials to manufacture goods that are then exported, or destroy imported goods under CBP supervision may qualify. This applies to manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and cross-border e-commerce companies. Drawback covers duties paid under Section 301, IEEPA, and other tariff programs. An eligibility assessment can confirm whether your specific activity qualifies.

The industry standard for traditional duty drawback providers is 9–12 months due to manual processing workflows. Zollback's automated platform compresses that timeline to 10–15 working days for end-to-end processing, from document ingestion to CBP filing. Actual refund timing also depends on CBP's processing queue after submission.

Traditional providers often charge setup fees or retainers. Zollback operates on performance-based pricing — there are no upfront fees. Zollback takes a percentage of the refund recovered, meaning you only pay when actual cash is returned to your account. If no refund is recovered, you owe nothing.