PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The application process opened Monday for businesses to seek refunds on tariffs ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. However, small businesses and consumers may face significant challenges in recapturing those funds.
Dr. Brian Strow, dean of the Rinker School of Business at Palm Beach Atlantic University, said the application process for the tariff rebate is detailed, complicated and designed more for large companies and importers.
WATCH BELOW: Small businesses face hurdles getting tariff refunds
"This is a very complicated process because it's not all tariffs being rebated," Strow said. "You're either going to have to have a huge accounting department, or you will outsource it to a firm that specializes in this type of accounting."
For small businesses like the Learning Express Toys & Gifts in Palm Beach Gardens, the uncertainty is real. Outside the store, parents lined up for a popular toy made in China that was exposed to high tariffs a year ago and may now be subject to a rebate.
"This is the hot squishy of the year, everyone wants NeeDoh," Lizzie Lerner, the store's owner, said.
Lerner, who likely paid for the tariffs in one way or another, expects a hard time getting anything back.
"It would be really hard to figure out what was tariffed and what wasn't, just because most of our vendors just did increase prices, so I don't know if that necessarily applies to us," Lerner said.
While the process is tough for small businesses, experts agree it will be even tougher for consumers to have any hope of getting a rebate for the tariffs.
"There's no law that says consumers have to get anything back," Strow said. "It's consumers, you and I, who paid, and there's no mechanism for us to automatically get any money back."
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