The Treasury paid out more than twice what it collected in customs duties last month, deepening the fiscal cost of the Supreme Court's tariff ruling
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The U.S. Treasury took in $23.6 billion in gross customs duties in June while paying out $49.2 billion in refunds, according to its monthly budget statement, leaving a net customs shortfall of about $25.6 billion. That payout was more than twice the approximately $22 billion disbursed the previous month, when refunds and collections were close enough to nearly cancel each other out, leaving a net outflow of just $42 million.
The June figures reflect the accelerating pace of repayments flowing from the Supreme Court's Feb. 20 ruling that struck down the broad tariffs President Donald Trump imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Refunds began in earnest in May after a government-run portal opened in late April to process claims.
The net customs outflow contributed to a June federal budget deficit of $120 billion, a reversal from the $27 billion surplus recorded in June 2025. Total June receipts fell $31 billion, or 6%, to $496 billion compared with June a year earlier.
For the first nine months of fiscal year 2026, the deficit totaled $1.367 trillion. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget noted that figure already exceeds the deficit for all of fiscal year 2025, according to Yahoo Finance.
Combined, the two months of payouts account for around $71 billion — roughly 42% of the $166 billion in IEEPA-based duties that U.S. Customs and Border Protection collected and that are now owed back to importers, according to Reuters. The Trump administration has been expanding the categories of tariffs eligible for refunds through the portal, meaning additional businesses are expected to be able to apply in coming months.
The high-water mark for monthly tariff collections was $31.35 billion, reached last October; collections have broadly weakened since then, even as June showed a modest uptick of about $1.7 billion compared with May, according to Yahoo Finance. The administration has further reduced what it collects in duties by carving out exemptions for certain goods, with recent additions covering Moroccan fertilizer imports and farm equipment.
CBP's executive director of trade programs, Brandon Lord, said the agency had cleared $35.5 billion in refunds through its CAPE portal as of early May, covering more than 8 million import entries including interest on the original duties. Companies including Oshkosh and Basic Fun had begun receiving partial payments on their claims at that point, with Basic Fun CEO Jay Foreman saying funds were arriving but in modest initial amounts.
With a 10% across-the-board tariff scheduled to lapse on July 24 and new levies in preparation, the administration's overall trade strategy remains unsettled.
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