Yup, another failure of a policy. And again not a surprise, it was widely explained ahead of time they were illegal, but instead they were forced through under an "Emergency" situation and now enormous amount of money wasted and what's returned is being refunded to corporations even though the consumer ultimately paid the bill.
Another case of acting impulsively.
Kinda like the reason the price of oil is so high right now.
The true irony is 10% .. 15% of importers to the USA (Importer of Record in the lingo) are foreign entities. For them, the tariff refund is a transfer directly from the USA consumer to the foreign countries ... that Trump was trying to penalise.
I keep seeing basically this comment over and over, which on reddit would be expected but I'm surprised how much it pops up here. I would expect the HN crowd to be a bit more cognizant of the fact that the consumer is at the end of a potentially long chain and that direct-to-consumer refunds through that chain are at best impractical and at worst literally impossible.
In this case the importer was losing money post tariff so was the exporter. the consumer was actually paying more than the tariff (due to margin).
making each actor "whole" in even this short, cut-and-dry chain would be extremely difficult not even counting the overhead of each entity issuing refunds. A product with multiple importer inputs and more hands in the pot would be nearly impossible to even trace and you'd have to be able to definitively construe that each change in price at each step was directly related to tariffs, maybe someone in the chain was already going to raise prices some and then didn't raise any more on top of the tariff thus the tariff increase was absorbed by a pre-planned price hike.
Did people get charged more? yes. Are you getting your money back, no. does it suck? yes. Is it some conspiracy to make importers more wealthy? no. Were more than just end consumers harmed? yes! Is this fair? fuck no, but truly fair is impossible so might as well do something rather than let the corrupt government keep their ill gotten gains.
I wonder how it works for small folks like me. My brother sent me something from India and put a value on it (should not have). The government charged me a few bucks, but then fedex charged me something on top as their fees. Now if they charge me to return the fees, I will still end up losing money :) since the fedex fees were more than the government fees
It is not a big amount, but I am sure there are lots of people with similar stories.
Cantor Fitzgerald, run by (Commerce Secretary, Epstein neighbor, and island visitor) Lutnick's sons. It should be noted Lutnick himself was a big proponent of tariffs to replace "some" income taxes -- just not your own.
>Public reporting indicates that Cantor has offered companies the opportunity to trade their legal claim to a future tariff refund in exchange for twenty to thirty percent of the duties the company paid.
This forum told me that other countries would pay the tariffs for the end customer. Was that incorrect, and if so, how could this forum get it wrong? What other confidently stated truths could also be wrong?
Am I reading between the lines correctly, that consumers who paid higher prices to help cover the cost of these tarriffs can expect no refunds?
Yes, it's effectively a transfer of wealth from the consumer to the companies above them, much like everything else these days
Yup, another failure of a policy. And again not a surprise, it was widely explained ahead of time they were illegal, but instead they were forced through under an "Emergency" situation and now enormous amount of money wasted and what's returned is being refunded to corporations even though the consumer ultimately paid the bill.
Another case of acting impulsively.
Kinda like the reason the price of oil is so high right now.
The true irony is 10% .. 15% of importers to the USA (Importer of Record in the lingo) are foreign entities. For them, the tariff refund is a transfer directly from the USA consumer to the foreign countries ... that Trump was trying to penalise.
Yup. More theft from regular Americans.
That's what I wonder too.
Ultimately it's the customer who paid more for his his'goods, not the importer.
Is the us government seriously going to give American citizens money to some Chinese importers ?
Plenty of companies didn't change their prices and ate the tariffs.
If the company got overcharged for materials, you don’t get a refund either.
Unless the company wants to. Apparently, Costco has said they will be providing refunds:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/costco-pass-along-tariff-refu...
Absolutely and I highly doubt those businesses will lower the prices on anything they raised prices on. Double dip FTW.
I keep seeing basically this comment over and over, which on reddit would be expected but I'm surprised how much it pops up here. I would expect the HN crowd to be a bit more cognizant of the fact that the consumer is at the end of a potentially long chain and that direct-to-consumer refunds through that chain are at best impractical and at worst literally impossible.
This study actually follows that chain:
https://www.nber.org/202603/digest/pass-through-tariffs-evid...
In this case the importer was losing money post tariff so was the exporter. the consumer was actually paying more than the tariff (due to margin).
making each actor "whole" in even this short, cut-and-dry chain would be extremely difficult not even counting the overhead of each entity issuing refunds. A product with multiple importer inputs and more hands in the pot would be nearly impossible to even trace and you'd have to be able to definitively construe that each change in price at each step was directly related to tariffs, maybe someone in the chain was already going to raise prices some and then didn't raise any more on top of the tariff thus the tariff increase was absorbed by a pre-planned price hike.
Did people get charged more? yes. Are you getting your money back, no. does it suck? yes. Is it some conspiracy to make importers more wealthy? no. Were more than just end consumers harmed? yes! Is this fair? fuck no, but truly fair is impossible so might as well do something rather than let the corrupt government keep their ill gotten gains.
PPP 2.0
I wonder how it works for small folks like me. My brother sent me something from India and put a value on it (should not have). The government charged me a few bucks, but then fedex charged me something on top as their fees. Now if they charge me to return the fees, I will still end up losing money :) since the fedex fees were more than the government fees
It is not a big amount, but I am sure there are lots of people with similar stories.
Didn't some guy buy up a bunch of the rights to tariff refunds at discount hoping for this?
Cantor Fitzgerald, run by (Commerce Secretary, Epstein neighbor, and island visitor) Lutnick's sons. It should be noted Lutnick himself was a big proponent of tariffs to replace "some" income taxes -- just not your own.
>Public reporting indicates that Cantor has offered companies the opportunity to trade their legal claim to a future tariff refund in exchange for twenty to thirty percent of the duties the company paid.
https://fortune.com/2026/03/07/winners-supreme-court-tariff-...
https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-wa...
It's more than one guy, there's a whole industry around it.
I think the most famous one is a person working in government or closely related to someone who is. (drawing a blank on the name right now)
From what I understand a tariff refund system has been in place for decades, as companies dispute tariffs they were charged and get refunded.
It's nice to see them actually complying with the Supreme Court's decision instead of just ignoring it and telling them to enforce it.
You mean the SC ruling that moves money from the US treasury to the aristocracy class?
Oh, don't worry. They'll find a way to screw over the consumer.
only because Lutnick's sons will be main benefactors.
Our country’s gargantuan fiscal deficit is about to get even larger. At what point will lenders get sick of subsidizing the US government?
I wonder how much Lutnick's net worth will increase when this goes online.
This forum told me that other countries would pay the tariffs for the end customer. Was that incorrect, and if so, how could this forum get it wrong? What other confidently stated truths could also be wrong?
I have not once, in any thread on this entire site, seen that opinion get stated without strong challenges to the claim.
> What other confidently stated truths could also be wrong?
Well, for starters.
> This forum told me that other countries would pay the tariffs for the end customer.
For "this forum" read "the small but persistent crowd of pro Trump tech bros".
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