Tariff refunds boost quarterly earnings for some of biggest US companies

Tariff refunds are showing up on Wall Street. 

The latest quarter spanned the Trump administration handing back the bulk of the $100 billion returned so far. It’s providing many companies a boost as they report their earnings. 

Amazon reported receiving $600 million. Apple said tariff refunds added $0.11 in diluted earnings per share for the quarter. PepsiCo told investors that refunds were helping offset higher commodity costs. Caterpillar said its refunds boosted its operating profit margin higher than anticipated. 

They are among the mega-cap names reaping the benefits after sitting out the legal fight. And tariff refunds extend well beyond tech, as an array of industries try to recoup billions they paid the invalidated tariffs.

Even as the refund amount crosses the $100 billion mark, not all the tariffs have been returned. The government estimates the deposits amount to $166 billion in total.

Small businesses and Democratic-led states were the ones to defeat Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs at the Supreme Court. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed an outside brief in support, but backing from large corporations was scant.

Once the high court’s 6-3 ruling invalidating Trump’s tariff landed, it sparked a massive refund process from small and big businesses alike.

“The tariff refunds comes, obviously, very handy and in some other trade-offs that we have to make in the business,” PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said on the company’s earnings call last month.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in an update on Tuesday that $100 billion in refunds has been sent for disbursement so far since it launched its online refund system, known as CAPE.

“The CAPE program has been a remarkable success,” U.S. Court of International Trade Judge Richard Eaton, an appointee of former President Clinton overseeing the refund process, said at a Thursday hearing.

Apple’s CFO attributed $0.11 of diluted earnings per share last quarter to tariff refunds. 

At Amazon, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Brian Olsavsky said on the company’s earnings call last week that it has received $600 million.

“We are participating in the tariff refund process,” Olsavsky said.

The earnings reports have cast aside any lingering doubt that the........

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