Costco says it received $184 million in IEEPA tariff refunds in fourth quarter
An executive disclosed the refund on the earnings call, in a quarter where Costco missed on both profit and revenue
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Chart: COST, one-minute prices, three sessions
Costco received $184 million in tariff refunds tied to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act during its fourth quarter, an executive said on the company's earnings call.
The refunds followed a February 2026 US Supreme Court ruling that tariffs collected under the act were illegal. The court left the question of remedies to lower courts, according to Norton Rose Fulbright and PwC. The US Court of International Trade later ordered US Customs and Border Protection to refund the duties to the importer of record, according to the National Retail Federation.
Costco missed Wall Street's targets for both earnings and revenue in the quarter. Membership fee income rose to $5.907 billion from $5.323 billion a year earlier, and comparable sales climbed 9.4%.
The refund is a one-time recovery tied to a specific tariff dispute, not a change to Costco's ongoing cost structure or membership trends, so it does not alter the margin trajectory investors are tracking. It adds a modest boost to the quarter's results but says nothing about the company's future tariff exposure or demand.