Retailers celebrate tariff refunds

It’s retail earnings season and it’s probably not too surprising that retailers were some of the biggest beneficiaries of tariff refunds under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

As a quick recap, President Trump declared Liberation Day on April 2, 2025. Ten months later — on Feb. 20, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that the President couldn’t impose tariffs and companies started lining up for refunds.

And line up they did: Just this morning, when Target reported second quarter earnings, it said that that it had received nearly $1 billion in refunds, which accounted for $1.65 in earnings for the quarter. In their 13-page release, Target used the word tariff 20 times, compared with just once in its first quarter release and once in its second quarter release for 2025.

TJX, the company behind Marshalls, TJ Max and HomeGoods, also reported earnings this morning and said it had received $331 million in tariff refunds during the quarter and that it expected to receive additional refunds next quarter.

Home Depot, which reported earning yesterday didn’t include a number in its earnings release. But during the earnings call, it said it had received $730 million in tariff refunds.

These numbers may pale in comparison to companies like Apple, which according to this WSJ article from last week received $2.2 billion in refunds. But it’s not nothing either.

One quick and dirty trick that I learned a long time ago — long before various AI tools came along — is that sometimes just counting the number of times a particular word or phrase appears in an earnings release can be pretty informative. Target wasn’t the only company doing this. TJX used the word tariff (or tariffs) 37 times in its 14-page release, compared with just 1 time last quarter and 3 times a year ago.

As more retailers report, you can expect to see more details on this. Various news reports estimate the total tariffs collected at roughly $100 billion, so what we’ve seen so far in second quarter earnings is literally the tip of the iceberg. Of course, the bigger question is when that money will find its way back to customers — people like you and me — the people who ultimately paid for those tariffs.