How to Calculate Duty Drawback (2026)

The 99% rule

The refund is 99% of the drawback-eligible amount, not 100%. The remaining 1% is the administrative retention in the statute. On a straight unused-merchandise claim where you export the same goods you imported:

Drawback = 99% × duties and eligible fees paid on the units you export or destroy.

If you export only part of the entry, apply the share first. Export 40% of the units and the base is 40% of the duty paid on that entry, then take 99%.

Substitution is different. You do not automatically get 99% of the duty on the richer import. You get 99% of the lower of the duty on the designated imported merchandise and the duty that would apply to the substituted merchandise. That lesser-of comparison is in the manufacturing and unused-substitution provisions of § 1313, and 19 C.F.R. part 190 is where CBP spells out the calculation. A claim preparer still has to match the entry, the export, and the privilege. This page does not file the claim.

Example: unused merchandise, all of it exported

Take $10,000 customs value of Vietnamese clothing. This site's calculator assesses 29% (16.5% Column 1 + 12.5% forced-labor), so the duty is $2,900. Formal MPF is 0.3464% × $10,000 = $34.64. Ocean HMF is $12.50. Assume the whole shipment is exported unused and the claim is direct identification, not substitution.

• Duty refund: 99% × $2,900 = $2,871.00
• MPF, if the claim includes it: 99% × $34.64 = $34.29
• HMF, if the claim includes it: 99% × $12.50 = $12.38

Duty-only drawback: $2,871. With both fees included: $2,917.67.

The merchandise processing fee guide already treats MPF as recoverable on drawback. Substitution claims have limits the drawback overview flags. Direct identification of unused goods is the clean case. The broker still confirms which fee lines the privilege allows.

Example: only part of the entry is exported

$10,000 of Chinese electronics in this calculator is 37.5% duty, $3,750 (25% China Section 301 + 12.5% forced-labor, category MFN free). You export 40% of the units unused and sell the rest in the United States.

Eligible duty = 40% × $3,750 = $1,500.

Drawback = 99% × $1,500 = $1,485.

The 60% that stayed in the US is not drawback. It may still be an IEEPA refund question if that layer was paid in 2025, which is a different program. Drawback and the IEEPA refund are compared on drawback versus IEEPA. Do not subtract one from the other on this worksheet. They refund different duty lines.

Example: substitution and the lesser duty

Substitution, after TFTEA, can match commercially interchangeable goods at the 8-digit HTS level. You do not have to export the same serial-numbered unit. You do have to use the lower duty.

Same 8-digit clothing comparison, $10,000 customs value each, using this site's clothing category rates:

• Vietnam: 29% = $2,900 duty
• India: 26.5% = $2,650 duty (16.5% + 10% forced-labor)

If the designated import is the Vietnamese entry and the substituted export is matched to the Indian merchandise, the lesser duty is $2,650. Drawback is 99% × $2,650 = $2,623.50, not 99% of $2,900.

Swap the designation and the lesser amount is still $2,650. The higher-duty entry does not set the refund once a lower-duty substitute is in the match. Classifying both goods in the same 8-digit subheading is the legal condition. "Both are shirts" is not.

Manufacturing drawback

Manufacturing drawback under § 1313(a) (direct identification) and § 1313(b) (substitution) refunds duty on imported merchandise used to manufacture an article that is then exported or destroyed. The factory records have to show the imported material in the exported article, or, for substitution, that the substituted material and the import are commercially interchangeable and classifiable in the same 8-digit subheading.

The relative-value or appearing-in schedule is part of the manufacturing ruling CBP approves. This page does not invent a yield factor. If 1 kilogram of imported fabric appears in each exported shirt, the duty base is the duty on that kilogram, not the duty on the whole roll, and the 99% and lesser-of rules still apply on top. The types are written up on manufacturing drawback and unused merchandise drawback.

What TFTEA changed

TFTEA is the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015, Public Law 114-125. Its drawback provisions are what CBP implemented in 19 C.F.R. part 190, generally effective for claims on February 24, 2018. People search "TFTEA duty drawback" and "duty drawback 2018" for that rewrite. The rules that change the math are:

• 8-digit substitution. Unused and manufacturing substitution match at the 8-digit HTSUS subheading, instead of the older commercial-interchangeability tests that were harder to document. The goods still have to be classifiable there.
• Five-year window. The claim is filed within five years of the import date. That window is why entries from 2021 can still be open. The filing clock is on the 5-year lookback.
• 99% retained. TFTEA did not cut the refund to a smaller percentage. The calculation is still 99% of the eligible amount, including the lesser-of cap on substitution.
• Recordkeeping moved onto the HTS number. The designated import, the substitute, and the export proof have to line up at that 8-digit level in ACE.

A separate TFTEA page would repeat this calculation. The history and the dollar math are the same subject. The program page for the head term "duty drawback" remains duty drawback. This section is the TFTEA target.

What the percentage is not

Drawback is not a flat "drawback rate" published like a tariff. There is no 5% or 20% drawback schedule. The percentage in the statute is 99% of whatever duty you paid on the matched goods.

Lines that generally do not come back: antidumping and countervailing duties. The drawback overview states that exclusion. Section 301 and Section 232 duties can be eligible when the goods are exported or destroyed and the other conditions are met. That is the point of the China electronics example above: the 37.5% is ordinary duty in this calculator, not an AD/CVD case rate.

IEEPA refunds through CAPE are not drawback. They do not require an export. They also do not refund Section 301 or Section 232. Broker fees for preparing the drawback claim are not set by the statute. They come off your net, and this page does not quote a broker's price.

Timing, forms, and accelerated payment are the process flow chart. The chart is the procedure. This page is the amount.