Customs duties came in below zero in July, because Treasury refunded $33.4bn against $24.8bn collected

Minus $8,546m.

That is the customs duties line for July in the Monthly Treasury Statement, and the minus sign is not a misprint. The Bureau of the Fiscal Service reports gross customs collections of $24,835m for the month against refunds of $33,381m. Netted, the government paid out about $8.5bn more in customs refunds than it took in.

The year to date columns show how unusual that is. Through the first ten months of fiscal 2026 the government collected $269,156m gross in customs duties and refunded $114,683m, leaving $154,473m. Through the same ten months of fiscal 2025 it collected $141,733m gross and refunded $6,045m. Refunds are running at about nineteen times last year's pace.

The statement does not say why. It is a table of receipts and outlays, it carries no narrative on the point, and nothing in it names a decision, a case or a programme. Anyone supplying a reason is supplying it from somewhere else.

The gap against the budget

The full year budget estimate for customs duties is $406,059m. Ten months in, the net figure is $154,473m, which is 38 percent of it, with August and September left.

The month itself

July receipts were $334,010m and outlays were $766,318m, for a deficit of $432,308m. The same month a year earlier produced receipts of $338,492m, outlays of $629,635m and a deficit of $291,143m. So receipts were slightly lower and outlays were $136.7bn higher.

Fiscal year to date the deficit stands at $1,798,816m, against $1,628,515m in the comparable period of fiscal 2025. Gross interest on Treasury debt securities was $117,574m for the month and $1,169,593m for the year to date, against $1,012,878m at the same point last year.

Treasury releases the statement on the eighth workday after the month it covers, which put the July figures out this week. The document sets the next one, covering August, at 2 p.m. on 11 September.