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Companies Are Getting Their Huge Tariff Refunds

Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Adobe Stock

Much like when you forget about your Venmo balance for a few months to trick yourself into feeling flush, corporations are reveling in speedy tariff refunds to pad their quarterly earnings.

ICYMI: The Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s sweeping tariffs on almost every US trading partner in February, and since then, importers have been clamoring to get their cash back. Of the $166 billion in tariffs SCOTUS nixed, $129 billion in refunds had been approved as of the end of July.

So, what companies got the biggest checks? Over 40 members of the S&P 500 reported a combined $9.6 billion in refunds last quarter:

Apple leads the pack at $2.2 billion in refunds. The tech giant said the payout contributed about 5% of Q2’s per-share earnings, boosting it by about 11 cents.
Ford was refunded $1.3 billion.
Nike received $986 million, FedEx got $800 million, and Amazon collected $640 million.

But you probably won’t get your money back. Some companies have promised to pass the funds on via lower prices, but they won’t be sending you cash. Plus, it’s difficult to prove which price hikes were due to tariffs rather than other market factors. However, shippers like FedEx, UPS, and DHL will be offering direct refunds to some customers because they can track individual imports that had tariffs slapped on them.—MM

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Companies Are Getting Their Huge Tariff Refunds

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