It’s possible to recover sums paid toward International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs following the Supreme Court’s February ruling knocking them down, but “the timing, mechanism, and amount of any refund remains uncertain,” electric vehicle maker Rivian told investors in its quarterly financial report filed April 30.
Automakers are talking about tariff refunds to investors in their financial updates filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the first quarter of 2026. The disclosures come fresh off the unveiling of a new US Customs and Border Protection web portal for refund requests.
As the process continues to take shape, executives must balance the need to share refund-related information to answer investor questions with the current uncertainty over the amount and timing of paybacks.
Publicly traded companies are facing judgment calls about the best way to account for anticipated refunds. Companies could plan to recognize an asset for a tariff refund claim when receipt of the refund is “probable,” or take a more conservative approach and only record the asset when it’s “realized” or “realizable.”
Investors and analysts are paying close attention to what companies say as they evaluate the outlook for stock performance and track an auto industry that’s still adapting to the Trump administration’s volatile trade policies, which have increased costs and squeezed profits. Estimated possible refunds of IEEPA tariffs for the automotive sector total nearly $20 billion, according to an April PwC report.
Tesla said it hasn’t recorded items related to tariff refunds for its first quarter given uncertainty related to whether it will receive paybacks and the timing.
“If they wanted, they could have pulled a giant cookie out of the cookie jar from tariff relief, but they did not,” Roth Capital Partners research analyst Craig Irwin said of Tesla. “This is something that should help drive confidence that the company’s taking a balanced approach with accounting.”
Ford recognized a $1.3 billion benefit related to IEEPA tariffs, Chief Financial Officer Sherry House told analysts April 29. The company said it now expects to earn as much as $10.5 billion before interest and taxes this year, though it warned of pressure from rises in commodity costs.
Automakers’ varied approaches to addressing tariff refunds in financial reports may be tied to differences among their accounting systems and correspondence with Customs, Hofstra University Associate Professor Jack Castonguay said.
“The amount of information you have and the accounting software you have and the accounting expertise you have is going to impact how good your estimates can be,” Castonguay said.
Refund Updates
GM said it expects as much as $15.5 billion in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes this year—a raised outlook that reflects about $500 million of tariff-cost relief tied to the Supreme Court ruling.
The company behind Chevrolet and Cadillac took the IEEPA tariff amount it paid last year that was subject to the Supreme Court ruling and credited that back as a receivable, GM CFO Paul Jacobson said during an April 28 earnings call.
Still, GM’s adjusted automotive free cash flow guidance of $9 billion to $11 billion excludes the anticipated refund given uncertainty around the timing of the payment, Jacobson said. This metric is used by management to review the liquidity of automotive operations, according to GM’s quarterly report.
The company doesn’t know “when the refunds are going to be received, how that window might work going forward,” Jacobson told analysts.
GM will apply for reimbursement, spokesperson Jim Cain said in a May 1 statement to Bloomberg Tax. When the refund is received, it will flow through GM’s cash statement, Cain wrote.
Meanwhile, Tesla didn’t recognize items related to an IEEPA tariff payback in the first quarter—and won’t until such amounts are “realized or realizable.”
The disclosure’s wording appears to reference accounting guidance that states contingent gains shouldn’t be recognized until the gain is realized or realizable, for instance after a company receives an affirmative agreement with Customs.
Tesla’s approach is surprising given how aggressive it has been in other aspects of accounting, like in its depreciation of equipment, said Gordon Johnson, CEO of GLJ Research LLC.
“Tesla’s decision is in line with what I think is appropriate because there are a lot of uncertainties associated with IEEPA,” Johnson said.
The company is looking to spend big to focus on artificial intelligence and robotics as it faces a challenging EV market and rising competition from Chinese businesses.
Tesla, Ford, and Rivian didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Looking Ahead
Broadly, the Trump administration has said the first tariff refund payment is set to go out around May 11.
About 3% of IEEPA entries are in the refund stage of the process, which will culminate in electronic payments from the US Treasury, according to a US Court of International Trade judge overseeing the process.
Investors and others interested in keeping up with tariff refunds should focus on companies’ disclosures and management analysis in financial reports, as well as earnings call discussions, Castonguay said.
“That’s where they can be a little more open, because they’re not putting it into the financial statement so they can speculate a little more,” Castonguay said.
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