Target Collected a $994 Million Tariff Refund. Small Importers Are Still Waiting on Thousands.

Target Corporation booked a $994 million pretax boost in the quarter ended August 1, 2026. All of it came from a single federal tariff refund it did not have to fight for. About ninety miles south, in North Mankato, Minnesota, a small coffee-roasting company is still waiting on $10,000.

Both refunds trace back to the same ruling. On February 20, 2026, the Supreme Court decided Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump by a 6-3 vote. The justices held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not give a president authority to impose the broad tariffs ordered in 2025. Every company that paid those tariffs is now owed money back.

Why the biggest companies got there first

Target's refund did not require a special application. The retailer's trade compliance staff tracks every entry filed with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, flags which ones qualify under the ruling, and submits corrections in bulk. Target disclosed the $994 million reduction to cost of sales in its second-quarter earnings release on August 19, 2026, alongside a $752 million lift to net earnings. The release did not address whether any of the refund would be passed on to customers.

The paperwork gap for small importers

Beth Benike does not have a trade compliance staff. She is the founder and CEO of Busy Baby, a Minnesota company that sells silicone baby products made in China. She estimates the government owes her about $50,000. Benike told KSTP-TV the process is manageable once an owner learns the steps and uses the free resources U.S. Customs and Border Protection provides. Not every small importer gets there first.

“For those that got in line first and were able to submit first, customs has certainly prioritized those submissions.”

Silverman's read points to a structural reason, not favoritism. Claims are processed in the order Customs and Border Protection receives them. Companies with import volume large enough to justify full-time compliance staff filed early. KSTP-TV reported that roughly $95 billion of the $166 billion owed nationwide had moved through the system. Applications had been open for close to two months.

A coffee roaster two states over waits

At Beans Coffee Company in North Mankato, co-owners Clay Sharkey and Eric Poppler paid about $10,000 in tariffs on a European espresso roaster. They had put down a deposit two months before the tariffs took effect. The Mankato Free Press reported the refund has not arrived. The automated system courts ordered the government to build is still only partly running.

Andy Wilke works with the regional business group Greater Mankato Growth. He said the tariffs were "very difficult to plan for" and left member businesses "very uncertain" about costs they could not predict months ahead.

The gap between well-staffed importers and small ones is not new to this round of tariffs. Trade attorneys have described a similar pattern during the 2018 and 2019 Section 301 tariff exclusion refunds. Importers without dedicated customs staff lagged in claiming money owed to them. No government agency has published a count of how many small businesses missed out then, or how many will this time.

For a company the size of Target, a nine-figure refund is a line in an earnings release. For a business the size of Busy Baby or Beans Coffee, the same kind of money decides whether payroll clears on time. The compliance staff that decided who got refunded first is largely the same advantage that decided who could absorb the tariffs in the first place.