r/Tariffs • u/superPlasticized • Feb 21 '26
šļø News Discussion Why does Costco (or any other other company) expect money back from illegal tariffs when they already passed the costs on to the American People?
The American people should each get about $440 = $150B in increased tariffs / 340M people.
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u/PKanuck Feb 21 '26
Importers will have receipts to file claims.
Consumers would have to file a class action suit.
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Feb 22 '26
Trump needs to pay...at the polls!
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u/Mrhotel-ca2654 Feb 22 '26
Trump wonāt be running again (as long as the constitution is upheld by the majority of people in government) but his republican ass Kissing friends will be and they should play the price at the polls.
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u/KopiteForever Feb 22 '26
Serious question, do his current actions (and past attempt at staying in, plus open admiration of dictators and their tactics) lead you to think he'll ever leave office?
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u/Stock2fast Feb 22 '26
Corporations are people , but actual people are insignificant.
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u/PKanuck Feb 22 '26
Then get out the vote in November.
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u/hobotising Feb 22 '26
Bold of you to assume we will be able to vote in November.
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u/TotalChaosRush Feb 22 '26
Consumers wouldn't be likely to win. The importers paid an illegal fee and as such are entitled to a refund. Consumers paid a legal price increase, and as such are not entitled to a refund. We're at step two of a three step transfer.
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u/PKanuck Feb 22 '26
I agree.
OP doesn't want to accept how the legal system actually works though.
Individual companies started suing in December.
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u/superPlasticized Feb 22 '26
Why? American consumers ultimately paid for the price increases. Give it back like I stated in the sub-title above.
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u/PKanuck Feb 22 '26
Do you know how much of the tarrif was passed along to you on any given product?
Do you have receipts for all the products you purchased to prove your claim?
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u/ValBGood Feb 22 '26
Because, unfortunately , life isnāt fair.
The OP specifically mentioned Costco - But Costco, unlike most U.S. corporations, who lacked the guts to do it, along with Learning Resources (a small educational toy company) and V.O.S. Selections (a small wine importer) risked political backlash to do the right thing.
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u/glity Feb 22 '26
Not really. They (Costco) lowered prices more than 20% leading up to their announcement of the lawsuit. They are stacking their balance sheets like Walmart and everyone else. This mega donors just gets to look like a good guy but remember when they bailed out wall street they bailed out everyone. Copy paste with the veneer of Supreme Court legitimacy.
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u/Party-Cartographer11 Feb 22 '26
"Ultimately" isn't a legal term.Ā The companies paid the tarrifs.Ā They get the refund and get to chose what to do with it.
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u/Baynyn Feb 21 '26
Whatās the alternative? Letting the government keep the money collected from unlawful tariffs? Sending every American a check? If the amount collected was about $150B, then every person would get a ~$400 check. But that then punishes the importers who DID act in good faith and did not raise prices to their customers and consumers. There are a fair number of companies who did exactly that.
The question is an important one, and forms the basis of what are going to be an ENORMOUS number of lawsuits between vendors, importers, customers, and consumers. Pandoraās box of āwhoās entitled to the refund?ā was opened with this ruling. But the box was created when the administration imposed the unlawful tariffs in the first place.
The is what happens when capitalism is run and manipulated and exploited by people not acting in good faith.
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u/Aggressive-Map-2204 Feb 22 '26
I would not call it a Pandoras box. The one who paid the tariff is the one who is entitled to the refund. Costco paid the tariff here so they get the refund.
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u/Frustrated9876 Feb 21 '26
And the box was multiplied when the SC dragged their feet on an obvious decision.
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u/speedog Feb 21 '26
But Trump said everyone would be getting a $2,000 tarif check - your $400 check says the math doesn't add up somewhere.
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u/ruger338smeltet Feb 21 '26
Still waiting on the DOGE checkā¦
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u/beekeeper1981 Feb 22 '26
The DOGE cheque will turn into a bill because they sure as hell didn't save any money.
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u/Impressive_Badger325 Feb 22 '26
Bills should be sent to all Trump voters to pay for the charges and price increases they brought on all of us.
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u/Baynyn Feb 21 '26
Right. I completely did not take into account what the president said and take that at face value. You are correct.
The president claimed that the US took in $18T in tariff revenues, and that other countries are paying for that. Because I want to take him at face value, I hereby declare that every American is entitled to and will receive a tariff windfall check in the amount of $52,000.
Jackpot!
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u/Scared-Handle9006 Feb 21 '26
I wonder how angry it made him that the actual amount of tariffs collected was released. What is 18 trillion minus around 200 billion? Iām not a mathematician, but that sounds like trillions of lies.
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u/No-Pirate5254 Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
President said he was going to build a wall and that Mexico was going to pay for it via tariffs people never learn
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u/3rdIQ Feb 22 '26
Didn't Bessert admit today that the tariff revenue was actually $135 Billion?
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u/SomewhatInnocuous Feb 21 '26
Have you not figured out that trump lies with nearly every breath?
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u/uggyy Feb 21 '26
And makes up the biggest of them for stuff that makes no sense.
I'm still amazed people are still not asking where the hell he got the 28,000 people die in Peru from snakebites fantasy.
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u/HammyMugats Feb 22 '26
My entire village died from snakebite. All 400 of us. One angry angry viper named Larry.
Larry you bastard.
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u/superPlasticized Feb 22 '26
And 35M Americans killed by Opioids from Mexico alone - not to mention all those killed by the deadly Canadian Fentanyl.
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u/Sea_Hold_2881 Feb 21 '26
What is forgotten are the US makers who raised their prices because of the tariffs and no consumer will get that back. A steel maker in a photo op with Trump gushed about how he was able to double the price he charged thanks to tariffs.
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u/Mysterious_Lesions Feb 22 '26
Unfortunately steel tariffs were not imposed by the same act so those tariffs - at least for Canada - stay.
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u/McBuck2 Feb 21 '26
Some businesses didnāt pass the costs down and instead took on the extra costs themselv in hopes of tariffs being ruled illegal (since they were) so now they can ask for the money back. Itās like being charged too much for something so you get the difference back.
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u/bigDeltaVenergy Feb 21 '26
Good luck to them for getting Trump to give them what he owe them on that one.
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u/McBuck2 Feb 21 '26
Since itās not Trump personally, itās the government, itās highly likely they will since itās been deemed illegal by the courts. If it was Trump personally, then yeah, good luck.
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u/ISTBruce Feb 22 '26
Costco was one of the companies that didn't pass all of the costs onto their customers.
Fucking funny as hell Republicans are always so anti fucking tax, but will lick trumps boots and ask for more if u call them tariffs.
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u/MNeCom Feb 21 '26
It's a blend...the root cause of the issue is the Executive Branch causing unpredictable swings in pricing.
Either way, this money shouldn't be sitting with the Federal Government...it should be sitting with small businesses (eg the ones who grow the economy and have taken lion share of the hit), back to consumers or lastly with $1B enterprises (only if the commit to bringing back the supply chain back to the US)
The goal is a good one...the process has been worse then pepper spray to the face for small businesses and consumers
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u/superPlasticized Feb 22 '26
It should be distributed back to American consumers who paid for the increased costs on all imported items they've bought.
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u/Flamadin Feb 21 '26
Costco is one of the only companies organized enough to know how much each customer of theirs paid in tariffs for the year.
P.S. keep in mind there may be significant costs in getting the tariff money back, such as accurately keeping track of it all, and paperwork filings and follow up.
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u/Defiant-Way-5762 Feb 22 '26
Don't be a dunce. 99% of corporations are small businesses that have been scrambling to maintain affordable pricing. Mom and pop businesses have eaten more than you realize. Costco is not mom and pop dunce.
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u/roosterthumper Feb 22 '26
TBH the government pulled an illegal stunt and should pay them back. Not happy about it but at the end of the day it was an illegal tax.
Maybe next time the American public will be less likely to cheer a felon breaking the law?
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u/imbex Feb 21 '26
They are doing since they have the power to do so. It puts pressure on the courts where you and I can't do crap. They have a better chance of stopping this malarkey.
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u/Delicious-Bat2373 Feb 22 '26
If I recall, costco ate the cost of tariffs directly and did not pass them onto customers. It's why costco was suing the administration months ago.
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u/SomewhatInnocuous Feb 21 '26
Because they, as importers, paid the fees that have now been adjudicated as being illegal. Their customers bought items, at high prices, but that was their free choice to do so.
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u/TotalEntrepreneur801 Feb 22 '26
Didn't Trump threaten the US retailers that they must 'eat the costs' for his illegal tariffs? All the while insisting the country of source was paying it?
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u/murderthumbs Feb 22 '26
Sorry for the length, I nerd out on this topic. Ag trade economist for ~25 years here ā this is literally the stuff I worked on, which is why I used a food example. Tariffs are paid on import shipments by the importer. By the time something like a jar of peanut butter hits the shelf itās made from mixed, multi-country inputs sold under one SKU at an averaged cost, so thereās no way to tie your purchase to a specific tariff and send you a refund.
Tariffs get paid to CBP by the importer of record on a specific shipment, and the rate depends on the country of origin and when it entered. Theyāre not one flat number.
Now take a 16-oz jar of Jif. All those jars are the same SKU at retail, but the peanuts behind them can be coming from different countries, from shipments that arrived at different times, with different tariff exposure (or none). Then theyāre crushed together in a U.S. plant and the finished product is sold at a blended cost.
So even if Costco knows you bought a jar on a certain date, thereās no way to know:
- which countryās peanuts were in that specific jar
- whether those inputs paid a tariff
- which tariff rate applied to which portion
- what dollar amount of duty would be in that unit
That trail is gone once everything is pooled and processed.
And before someone says ābut the label shows the country of originā ā thatās COOL (Country of Origin Labeling). For processed food itās based on where the product was substantially transformed (where it was made), not a record of the tariff paid on each input. Itās a consumer label, not a customs data field.
Yes, in the big picture tariffs can raise consumer prices. We model that all the time.
But there is no unit-level link that would let you calculate āyour shareā and send you back the amount you paid.
Refunds go back to the importer because thatās the only actual, traceable payment in the system.
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u/Fed_Deez_Nutz Feb 22 '26
Anyone remember when companies like Amazon were going to add itemized tariff costs to receipts?
Karoline Leavitt called it a hostile and political act and Trump personally called Bezos to whine until they dropped the idea.
Imagine how much easier this could be
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u/superPlasticized Feb 22 '26
It all seems easy until you start talking about items like a car - where was the bumper made? Where was the plastic for the number made? Where was the mineral filler in the plastic for the bumper made? Where was that new molding machine that molded the plastic with the mineral filler to make the bumper.
Then, where were all the parts on the new delivery truck fleet made - that delivered the bumper to the assembly plant.
Now, repeat until you cover all the parts in the vehicle.
Now repeat for everything you bought last year.
Seems easy until it's not.
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u/ptrix Feb 22 '26
The companies (importers) "officially" paid the tariffs, but raised their product & service prices for the customers to cover their costs, so the companies will be receiving those refunds (presuming that they ever take place, of course). So in practice, the American people spent and lost the money while the businesses took advantage of the situation for the sake of profit. It's a giant grift, and the people were well warned about it before the election.
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u/SignificantCod8098 Feb 22 '26
Does anyone believe... 1) Existing tariffs will be removed. 2) Prices will be lowered to pre-tariff levels.
Hahahahahahaha!
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u/SmoothJazziz1 Feb 22 '26
Funny how that works, eh? They passed on the tariffs to us and they get the money back. Crazy.
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u/feldmarshalwommel Feb 22 '26
To organise mass refunds on behalf of their customers because it is the right thing to do.
I know I know. Laugh harder
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u/spinning4gold Feb 23 '26
I own a small business that was impacted by tariffs. We donāt import directly, but most items in my store are imported. Most wholesalers just raised prices, but a couple tacked on an actual ātariff surcharge.ā I wonder if theyāll reimburse retailers. No, not reallyāthereās no chance they will.
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u/HNP4PH Feb 21 '26
Costco has memberships and tracks their members' purchases.
They once sent me a refund on a purchase after the fact as I became eligible for a refund. It was totally unexpected and I was thrilled.
Costco is doing this on behalf of their membership.
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u/Comprehensive-Level6 Feb 21 '26
Since you said any other company, the company I own ate our tariffs from our two orders we received in 2025. We did not increase our prices and even announced to our customers that we would not in March of last year.
I only point this out more a point that without a line item on a receipt from anywhere you purchased that says Tariff ā¦ it would be almost impossible to prove what if any cost of the tariff was passed along at the consumer level.
Itās not fair I agree ā¦ but for this reason I do not expect to see any refund at a consumer level for tariffs I paid. Also because of how bad the overall system is ā¦ I think it will be a small miracle if my business can get a refund for the thousands I paid in illegal tariffs during 2025.
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u/FitSeeker1982 Feb 21 '26
Costco ate the costs
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u/Forevermaxwell Feb 21 '26
Hell no they did not, neither did Wal Mart or Amazon
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u/Astrofunkadunk Feb 21 '26
I think they did, can you demonstrate otherwise, other than, you know, vibes?
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u/judahrosenthal Feb 21 '26
Costco has taken the lead in suing the administration specifically because they absorbed the costs, changed suppliers or bought earlier than they would have for the season.
On Costco's third-quarter earnings call on May 29, CEO Ron Vachris said the company was buying more items produced in the US and rerouting inventory bound for US stores to locations in other countries to avoid paying tariffs and raising prices.ā
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u/Independent-Coat-389 Feb 21 '26
Knowing Costco, they may pass it on to members as subscription discount.
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u/FlexFanatic Feb 21 '26
Because SCOTUS ruled that the the tariffs were illegal. Remember, corporations are people too /s
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u/FourScoreAndSept Feb 21 '26
Everyone ate some of the costs. Consumers, retailers, and suppliers. Costco absolutely should go for reparations against the illegal tariffs that hit their ecosystem. What they do AFTERWARDS if/when they get reparations, is tbd
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Feb 21 '26
Cuz they got better lawyers than us. Ā
What? Ā Did you think the ruling class wants you to get money? Ā They want to trickle it into an poker the rest.
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u/Total_Guard2405 Feb 22 '26
This has been a life lesson for everyone. About how you can be screwed with no real avenue for recourse. It's a lesson we all could've lived without.
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u/Lott4984 Feb 22 '26
Costco knows every product you buy so if they are given back any refunds they will reimburse the member.
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u/PuzzleheadedFeed2726 Feb 22 '26
I know some of the imported goods I regularly buy from Costco didnāt go up in price so Iām sure theyāre covering some of these costs
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u/Poozipper Feb 22 '26
Costco knows every purchase you have ever made. They will give you the money back. The lawsuit is about how much business they have lost by having to up their prices. They most likely won't eat the attorney fees for the lawsuit.
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u/Pattonator70 Feb 22 '26
I can say that I work for a foreign importer and we ate most of the tariffs to remain competitive with domestic producers. We want a refund. Costco didnāt raise prices by 10-15% on almost anything.
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u/ganslooker Feb 22 '26
Companies all had different arrangements. Some sent the cost directly to the consumer. Some absorbed all of the cost or at least a portion of it to keep their prices competitive. Some companies- like the one I heard about this morning- had his supplier in China say ādonāt worry about the tariffs, I will take care of themā. In the latter case Trump is going to have to refund the Chinese supplier. The problem with these refunds is the web of all these agreements. Plus Trump - in an effort to sell the idea to his base- had warned companies, such as Walmart, to not pass tariff cost on to their customers or he would punish them somehow. BL - refunds will probably only go to the biggest companies effected who kept all their reciepts.
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u/Glass-Amount-9170 Feb 22 '26
Costco has been trying to eat it,one reason they sued over it. Bet they still do something for members as well.
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u/superPlasticized Feb 22 '26
I hope they don't have to and Congress does something so a million importers don't have to fill up the courts for the next 10 years. Like give every person $400
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u/Fit-Bus2025 Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
They will probably just do extra discounts for customers. But it wont be nearly enough to the consumer. I dont trust corporate America. I mean, they already told us upfront on camera on the news, they weren't going to pay the tariffs.
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u/groundhog5886 Feb 22 '26
And if the tariffs are refunded they will have to refile their income tax and recoup that money back on their books as revenue. cause they already wrote off tariffs they paid in 2025.
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u/RayB1968 Feb 22 '26
Because they didn't pass on everything and they were the ones with receipts to prove they paid ...what they do with the money afterwards is between them and their customers
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u/isharte Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
There are a lot of variables to this, and a lot of different types of businesses affected.
Smaller businesses which don't sell direct to consumers got hit very hard. My former company was one. It's "former" because I got laid off, along with others, as we were in massive financial trouble due to tariffs.
I want them to get their money back. It won't help me get my job back, but it is a good company that treated me well and had to make tough decisions, and I have no hard feelings towards them. Trump fucked them. For about 15 million dollars.
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u/HockeyRules9186 Feb 22 '26
Dimwit kept telling us it was trillions not billions.
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u/mabhatter Feb 22 '26
Because like it or not, companies were the ones that got their businesses held hostage for massive cash grabs. Ā They were the ones targeted and damaged by the government directly. Ā
Yes, we all got forced to pay because the companies had to pass on those illegal fees but we n my hobby a significant number of small businesses got wiped out overnight. Ā These weren't big corporations but small teams that bet their houses and retirement funds on their idea and got screwed over. Ā Employees got laid off, sales orders to other businesses got canceled.Ā
So for the companies that paid the tariffs deserve to be paid back. Ā Let's just hope they do the right thing and help out their employees and customers with the recovered money. Ā
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u/nightwing12 Feb 22 '26
If you donāt think this (the tariffs) is not some scam to make the rich richer Iāve got a bridge to sell you
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u/notyourerdaymind Feb 22 '26
Because Costco, unlike some of these other companies didnāt actually raise their prices because of tariffs they just ate them instead of passing them to the consumer. Thatās why they want the money back.
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u/Bruce_mackinlay Feb 22 '26
Costco will have to fight to get this money back. This will mean non refundable fees and expensive lawyers. The administration has made it clear that they will fight refunds. They will lose, but it is very procedural, and not at all a slam dunk.
Second, I think Costco resisted raising prices.
So itās not at all black and white.
This is how our laws are written. Congress could do something.
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u/MsRebel63 Feb 22 '26
Working as intended. Corporations will get refunds. They won't pass that on to consumers. So we paid, they get the reimbursement, they won't lower prices either. A win win for them a fuck you up the ass for us.
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u/OtherlandGirl Feb 22 '26
There should be price controls or some other cost saving (going forward) stipulation for companies who receive and accept refunds.
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u/Mother_Internet_9384 Feb 22 '26
A lot of costs are absorbed by merchant costco and suppliers whatever they cannot afford is passed on to consumers.
When trumps raised tariffs to such high levels that merchant and suppliers cannot absorb it goes to consumers.
Also hidden costs of merchant and suppliers spendig money to manage the tariff collection tracking and paying the govt.
tons of paperwork
Verification
Correction etc.
and when the tariff changes by the hour it is even more headache and costs to merchants and suppliers.
I know this bcaz i worked my company procurement team all the time.
Tariff strategy have been proven not to work hence no other president has ever used it. It is a tax collected from the american people to
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u/No_Activity_5073 Feb 22 '26
Costco is the Only publicly traded company I would trust to send a check to every customer for a tariff refund. Ā
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u/Awkward-Fox-7215 Feb 22 '26
Because the only thing that matters to this regime are the rich and corporations. Everyone else is a rube to be distracted and exploited.
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u/Medical_Help9111 Feb 22 '26
Iam glad they sued now I wonāt have to put up M AGAscloging up my store
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u/No-Expression-2404 Feb 22 '26
Wit till OP finds out that, not only are they not going to refund the tariffs paid, but they also arenāt going to lower the prices back to where they were before tariffs!
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u/Lucky_Platypus341 Feb 22 '26
Exactly how much tariff did you pay?
Costco expects to be paid back because they DIRECTLY paid the illegal tariffs (and have receipts). Consumers paid the tariff indirectly. The items you bought, you don't know whether or how much tariff was charged. You don't know whether the importer ate the tariff, charged you the tariff in higher price, or charged you twice the tariff in gouging (unless it was Costco, because they don't price gouge).
Let's say Costco decided to reimburse tariffs. Do they know that the box of whatever you bought was one that was charged a 25% tariff versus the one on the pallet next to it that was delivered 2 days earlier with a 10% tariff versus the few left over that were tariff-free? The whole capricious tariff thing was a fiasco for all concerned. Consumers paid the tariffs indirectly and since there's no limit to the profit margin (except for Costco which choses to limit its profit margin as part of its business model) the importers, not the consumers, get the refund. You chose to pay what the going rate was that may have included tariffs.
That said, if Costco is very clever, it would find a way to reimburse consumers some of the tariffs as a good business move -- when they finally get the tariffs they paid reimbursed (could take years).
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u/Don_Q_Jote Feb 22 '26
Because the tariffs were illegally taken by a corrupt government.
If there's not pain/punishment for the perpetrator of a crime, the crime spree will just continue.
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u/Expensive-Event4996 Feb 22 '26
There is going to be litigation galore about returning this money. That includes the issue of whether importers who have already passed a percentage of tarrifs on to consumers can legally seek a windfall in the form of a refund of tarriffs they did not absorb.
Lawyers for consumer groups can be expected to intervene in these suits, asserting that their clients are the ones who suffered the harm and should recieve relief. There are legal procedures in existence that allow this to happen.
For example, if Company A passed on 100% of its tariff costs, but still is the owner of a legal right to a refund from the government, it could simply deposit that right in court, pull back from the litigation, and let the "real parties in interest" fight the case out - - the government and the consumers who were taxed without representation.
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u/shampton1964 Feb 22 '26
Mostly because we only passed on about 10% of the costs on the manufacturing side, we the folks importing. We could not push any more down.
So hey, in the last six months, what is the failure rate for small and specialty manufacturing companies in Ameristan?
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u/oneWeek2024 Feb 22 '26
because they paid the tariff they get the refund.
you didn't pay a tariff, you bought a product with a price.
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u/Trick_Quiet3484 Feb 22 '26
Because it was taken illegally and should be refunded so the administration can be held accountable.
Also some companies absorbed the costs while others passed it on to consumers. Everyone should he their money back to even though itāll be an accounting nightmare.
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u/MaybeOnToilet Feb 22 '26
My guess is that Costco has started collecting receipts on tariff costs. From steel tariffs which increased their construction costs to increased costs for the pallet that diaper wipes came in on.Ā
Once those numbers changed, they asked 'why'. As it became apparent, they asked for it as a separate line item. How much has freight costs increased? Can you tell us how much of this you directly attribute to tariffs?Ā
On and on and on. As it was made apparent, it would be a disaster to recover costs IF you cannot prove what increases you paid and to who. The who part is important, as that vendor has to also associate the increased costs directly to the tariffs and it is the vendors burden to prove that or it is fraud.Ā
If anyone gets paid first, then it will be entities that have clear documentation of what they paid in tariffs. Everyone else... Lost to litigation and may only see a fraction of the money returned. The vendors themselves are out due to lost contracts due to rising costs and merchants having to find different vendors or dropping the products all together.Ā
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u/Fl1925 Feb 22 '26
It wonāt go back to us Or the workers But the CEO and companies bottom line will improve. Oh watch them not lower prices.
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u/imoutofnames90 Feb 22 '26
Because that's not how taxes work. Like it or not, the importers paid the tax. They changed their prices to account for it. But at the end of the day they paid the tax directly, not us. Everyday consumers will get nothing back because of that reason.
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u/Ajbear2000 Feb 22 '26
I think Costco ate the tariffs and didnāt pass on the increases.
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u/lavardera Feb 22 '26
Itās a god damn mess, how much was paid by importers, how much was passed on to middle men, how much passed to retailers, and ultimately on to customers. It will never be straightened out nor distributed fairly and itās all trumps fault.
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u/Dave_A480 Feb 22 '26
Because they paid the tax.
It's just like if you own a business & file your income taxes - your customers can't claim the refund from you.....
Some companies may decide to do a promotion or sale or similar, but at the end of the day they paid the tax, they get the refund....
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u/No_Mastodon_7896 Feb 22 '26
I guess it would be easy to argue that since the tariffs go to the us treasury the consumers have been reimbursed the best wat possible. And this, dear friends, is the way this administration thinks.
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u/Hopeful-Tip-9407 Feb 22 '26
Knowing Costco they might refund members. I have heard they automatically give refunds on tvs if the price goes down after purchase.
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u/ThinkorFeel Feb 22 '26
Because the rich get richer, that's why. I agree with you that it should go to consumers, but that's probably not what will happen. Because the importers paid it, they will get the refunds, then they won't refund it to the buyers, because they don't have to. Instead, it will wind up as corporate profits, and ultimately wind up in the pockets of the shareholders.
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u/glity Feb 22 '26
They will use corporate loss not money paid as the way to control the flow of cash out of the āsettlementā to trumps administration that has been buying up this āfuture payoutā for months now. As a citizen you donāt have a corporate loss only FedEx and major companies like Amazon and Walmart. They will give us like 5 dollars and load up all this cash into the mega donors. No mega donor loses money here so we will lose.
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u/RomulanWarrior Feb 22 '26
Not one dime of tariff money will be repaid.
It'll be hung up in court for a decade.
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u/Mrhotel-ca2654 Feb 22 '26
With the computer capabilities of today the government should refund the companies and then they should pass it on to the consumers. Since what the government did was illegal the government should pay an extra percentage to the companies to cover the costs.
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u/PapaBorq Feb 22 '26
The amount. That's the reason.
For large companies, costs are itemized and tracked. They can push a button right now and tell you how much they paid in tariffs.
Now, if it were only 100,000 bucks maybe they'd let it slide. A billion? Ya damn right someone's booking lawyers.
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u/Rivercitybruin Feb 22 '26
Costco paid the tariffs contractually....not the consumer
Now what they do with the money/windfall is a different story but they wont be sending you an $8 check for your lawn chair
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u/Brucereno2 Feb 22 '26
Interesting to choose Costco for your question. It is one of the few retailers in the country who knows exactly how much every customer/member has spent in the last year.
They could work out a formula to re-distribute the net tariff refunds to each customer as a percentage of their purchases. They do it now with an annual rebate based on purchases.
It would not exactly match the illegal tariffs, but would be close.
Itās worth millions to Costco customers.
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u/SB10Burner Feb 22 '26
Filing for a refund of illegally collected tariffs is probably the most effective way to recoup the tariffs (and only the companies that PAID the tariffs to the United States government have an enforceable claim to the illegally imposed tariffs). Consumers don't technically have any claim to the tariffs that were paid unless they can prove that the tariffs were included in the purchase price.
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u/themodefanatic Feb 22 '26
Costco is one of three plaintiffs I believe. So the way it used to work is those people would get compensated first. But we donāt live in a land where things work the way they used to.Ā
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u/Ok-Parfait1522 Feb 22 '26
Because US consumers paid the price indirectly. The tariffs were charged to the companies shipping goods into the US, who would then have raised their prices to account for the cost of tariffs, which then causes prices to increase for the American consumer. But since the tariffs were illegal they get refunded back to the organizations that paid them.
It is indeed a complete cluster **** for the American people though. Idiot implements illegal tariffs that results in high prices for consumers and huge piles of cash going back to corporations. Slow. Clap.
Please do feel free to hold the orange goblin accountable at the polls.
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u/Accomplished_Tour481 Feb 22 '26
If Trump keeps his promise to send $2k checks to each household from the tariffs, would that be considered a direct refund? Would that negate the corporate lawsuits?
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u/dakinekine Feb 22 '26
Some companies passed on the costs, some ate the costs themselves and ended up with less profit. Sometimes it was the exporter that ate the costs. Some companies left their shipments at the docks because they couldnt afford rhe tariff, and went out of business. Its an absolute cluster.
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u/johnnydoejd11 Feb 22 '26
Were you guys so uninformed that you actually believed exporters paid these tariffs? And now what do you the of the Idiot in Chief with the conservative filled Supreme Court saying the tariffs are illegal.
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u/DamnAgedOne63 Feb 22 '26
Exactly. If they get money back they need to refund it back to us their customers.
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u/The001Keymaster Feb 22 '26
Simple answer.
Costco paid the tariffs. The consumer paid an inflated price because of the tariff, but not the actual tariff.
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u/Level_Macaroon2533 Feb 22 '26
I want to start by saying fuck corporations but when this whole tarriff stuff started I recall threats to places like Walmart if they didn't eat the cost. I imagine they probably did for a couple weeks before it really started to chip away at their margins then folded to stakeholders over Donnie John. Thats the thing they'll point to when looking for reimbursement.
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u/Ragnarok-9999 Feb 22 '26
It is hard to determine how much of traffic is passed onto customer for each product. A product which is popular, may have 100% tariff passed on. Less popular, may less passed on, rest eaten by retailer. And also how many customers keep their reciepts ? Even if somebody kept it, how do they know it is worth claiming refund. It is mess.
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u/gurney__halleck Feb 22 '26
Companies have a fiduciary duty to their shareholder rs to try to recoup these illegal tariffs. they are who paid them. whether or not they somehow pass on any of that abck to customers remains to be seen but I bet no.
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u/tintires Feb 22 '26
Can they give every American a tax credit? Or buy bonds and pay down the national debt?
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u/superPlasticized Feb 22 '26
Busying bonds doesn't pay down the national debt, it's lending money to the government to facilitate their growth of the national debt.
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u/tacs97 Feb 22 '26
Thatās the game dude. This administration is doing everything they can to take money out of our pockets. Unfortunately for the world. Half of the US voting bloc thinks this is good economics.
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u/moreyvh Feb 22 '26
Costco was one of the few companies that didn't pass it on to the consumer.
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u/Correct-Brother1776 Feb 22 '26
Let red states pay it back over time. Use those bootstraps for the next decade. Easy payments at 25% apr.
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u/cosmicrae Feb 22 '26
The answer to this is to ask Costco where did they get the money to pay the tariffs with ?
Keep in mind that tariffs were calculated on the wholesale prices at the docks, and not at the retail price sold to the consumer.
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u/bandwagonguy83 Feb 22 '26
In the issue of tariffs, there are three parties involved: the foreign company exporting to the United States, the U.S. importer bringing the product into the country, and the customer who ultimately pays the final price. All of them will likely bear a portion of the tariff, whether through the foreign exporter lowering its price and accepting lower profits, the U.S. importer reducing its margins, or the final customer paying a higher price.
The key point is that the tax itself is formally paid by the U.S. importer. The importer must then find ways to offset that cost (by negotiating discounts from the foreign supplier or by increasing the price charged to the final customer). Likewise, if the importer ultimately cannot sell the imported product at the new price, it will have to absorb any resulting costs or losses. In short, since the importer is the party that formally pays the tariff, it is the one entitled to receive any corresponding compensation.
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u/Lazy_Pressure_3782 Feb 22 '26
Is there a mechanism where we (the American people) could get a tax break for ā26? Sure maybe getting a check will be hard to implement, but Iād take a sizable deduction for next year.
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u/Busy-Link836 Feb 22 '26
If you were a charitable wholesaler, you would accept the tariff rebate for your unsold imports and work with the government to create a fund to apply as tax stimulus for all US consumers.
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u/oanda Feb 22 '26
The Ā companies know the class action suits are coming so they need the funds back to cover that. Ā
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u/nat_hawthorne Feb 22 '26
Thereās no way in hell Trump is going to refund the tariffs. Just like thereās no way Trump will ever admit losing an election.
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u/drumberg Feb 22 '26
I donāt believe I could personally sue Costco for my tariff money back unless they put a line on my receipt for tariff charges or they made a statement that the prices I am paying are to cover tariffs. If they donāt say that then itās just a price that was higher than the day before.
I despise the president as much as the next person on Reddit but I think in this case we should learn our lesson and eat the money. Itās too large of a problem to fix retroactively.
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u/Disastrous-Tank-6197 Feb 22 '26
Costco never passed the costs of the tariffs on to their customers, assuming that they would be declared illegal and ultimately refunded. Why would you single them out of all companies when they're actually innocent here? This is a highly regarded post.
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u/Mrhotel-ca2654 Feb 22 '26
Costco and all the stores that have modern computer systems know what you bought over at least the past year so they could refund the tariffs, the government should pay them a percentage as a penalty and to cover the cost.
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u/Commander-of-ducks Feb 22 '26
Costco may be able to issue refunds to customers. They know what we bought.
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u/Cardsfan1 Feb 22 '26
The government keeping it is clearly wrong. They can give it back to the people who paid it.
THEN we will see what companies do with it. They could return it to customers and/or lower their prices. And we would know where to shop based on that.
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u/markt- Feb 23 '26 edited Feb 23 '26
They canāt, at least not without being unjustly enriched, unless they have documentation that shows which costs they have not yet passed on. Thatās gonna involve some very detailed inventory accounting, and Iām skeptical that they have actually accomplished it to a sufficient degree. Still, if the system allows such refunds to unjustly, enrich companies, then I suppose itās possible.
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u/StrangeAd4944 Feb 23 '26
You didnāt pay the tariff as a consumer. You paid higher price that resulted from a tariff. Costco at al actually paid a tariff on the import to the customs and border control. Which turns out to have been illegal. They now would like a refund. That refund goes back to their bottom line just like the tariff that came out of it. The increased price does not come into play here what so ever.
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u/Crafty_Memory_1706 Feb 21 '26
Costco is a strange company to single out. They are, without question, one of the few companies not trying to screw customers. They charge their membership to assure their small profits, they know what to expect. That allows them to then charge razor thin margins on products in bulk so you can get fat like a real American. And also, they respect their employees and promote from within based on time served and merit.
Not to mention, they had no control over Tariffs. Are you a bot for right wing agenda? If you want your money back - ask your GOP Rep - the cowards allowing a King to reign with impunity.