AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Small business owner Richard Brown was out getting breakfast when the Supreme Court ruled that most of President Trump's tariffs were illegal. Brown had been paying those tariffs, and the news stunned him.
RICHARD BROWN: I just couldn't think. I didn't realize that the person gave me my bagel, that I could leave. I forgot how doors functioned.
RASCOE: That was two months ago, and ever since then, Brown has recorded audio diaries of his quest to get his tariff money back. The U.S. government started the refund process on Monday. Brown shared his voice memos with NPR's Alina Selyukh.
ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: A few seconds after getting excited about the Supreme Court ruling, Richard Brown said something prophetic.
BROWN: This is going to be a hot mess.
SELYUKH: That was late February, and U.S. officials were instantly saying refunds could take years. Companies like Costco and Revlon filed lawsuits to stake their claims. And Brown runs a really small business. It's called Proof Culture. It's just him in Ohio and his friend Erron Combs in Virginia. They're sneakerheads, selling to other sneakerheads.
BROWN: Shoelaces, cedar shoe trees, storage boxes for sneakers.
ERRON COMBS: Sneaker protectors.
SELYUKH: They used to make custom sneakers but then got into importing from China and now Mexico just three years ago.
BROWN: We've had the express master class of importing, tariff edition.
SELYUKH: They estimate the government now owes them up to $25,000 in tariff refunds. It's not life-changing money, but about 10% of their revenue last year - it can buy a lot of shoelaces and advertising. A few hours after the high court ruling, Brown sent a new voice memo.
BROWN: I'm also realizing how much work I need to do in gathering my shipping invoices and, you know, gosh, like all the different shipping services that I've used.
SELYUKH: Like Amazon and different freight-forwarding companies, through his Chinese suppliers, they handled most of the customs forms. Proof Culture just paid the bills, got the goods and focused on selling.
BROWN: I don't - I just - I don't want to be a customs broker when I grow up (laughter).
SELYUKH: For weeks, nobody knew how refunds might actually work. Many business owners began talking to their lawyers and customs brokers for advice. Brown doesn't have those people. So in February, five days after the court ruling, he got down to it.
BROWN: I'm going through shipping invoices, and I also have a couple of boxes of some product that just arrived that I actually have to relabel. You know, I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed today.
SELYUKH: The Trump administration, right after it lost in court, began rolling out new tariffs to replace the old ones. Brown was going to webinars about refunds through trade associations. He spent weeks trying to reach his shipping companies in China and wrangling his paperwork, all while trying to do his actual job - selling sneaker gear. Here he is in mid-March.
BROWN: My latest mind trick for getting my tariff refunds is, I'm just going to focus on one PO at a time.
SELYUKH: One purchase order at a time. By now, U.S. Customs said it was building an online system for refund claims, and this sounded much better than having to sue but also meant Brown had to learn a customs portal he'd never had to use. And he kept thinking how easy it was to pay the tariffs.
BROWN: And now you're telling me if I want my money back, figure it out. That sucks.
SELYUKH: It's a bit like filing taxes. The government has the numbers, but Brown has to do the math and show the proof.
BROWN: And I've got so many other competing priorities. In the midst of all that, it's tax time. I got to get my taxes done (laughter).
SELYUKH: In mid-April, about a week before the refund process actually began, U.S. Customs said something in court. Their new portal for tariff claims was apparently all set to handle the vast majority of shipments for which refunds were due. But that was because all those shipments were done by a small group of prolific importers, companies that quickly got ready to file their claims. More than two-thirds of importers were actually not ready - small importers like Brown, telling NPR about technical errors on the online portal, hours spent on hold with U.S. Customs with nobody answering.
BROWN: We're not equipped to deal with this.
SELYUKH: Trade experts at the libertarian Cato Institute last week wrote that the refund system not being instant and automated will mean the U.S. government likely will never give back tens of billions of dollars it promised to repay. When the refund portal opened on Monday, businesses that applied did so in minutes. They'll now wait two to three months for actual money. Richard Brown did not apply. He's still not ready. He says he feels like it's all a bit of a gamble, but...
BROWN: So where do we start today?
SELYUKH: He continues to plug away. Alina Selyukh, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
