How does IFTA work?

Every owner of a qualified motor vehicle must submit an IFTA application, or have their bookkeeper or accountant do so on their behalf. After you submit your application, you will receive an IFTA license as well as an IFTA decal for each qualified vehicle you operate. Whenever fuel is purchased, the amount is logged into the truck owner’s IFTA account.

At the end of each quarter, you must submit an IFTA report that lists the miles driven and the gallons purchased. These reports will determine either the amount of tax still owed or the refund you are due. The IFTA office in the trucking company’s home state will issue your refund or debt

IFTA was created to replace the old fuel tax system, in which trucks were required to have a separate decal for every state they operated in. The current IFTA reporting system simplifies the hassle of reporting fuel tax for trucking companies (including owner-operators) who operate across IFTA jurisdictions by reducing paperwork and minimizing the compliance requirements.

Keep in mind that IFTA is not an additional tax. IFTA was put into place to redistribute the tax to the states where the fuel is actually being used, not where it is purchased. This means no matter where you buy the fuel, you’re paying the fuel tax in whatever states you’re driving in. The power to service the needs of clients, right across this vast area, is now directly in the hands of drivers. While more convenient than the way things were before, the process still has important reporting requirements that trucking companies cannot overlook.

How the new streamlined process works:

Businesses with an IFTA license continue to buy fuel as usual but are “credited” with whatever fuel taxes they have paid. For every fiscal quarter (by the end of April, July, October, and January every year), they submit an IFTA fuel tax report, which lists how much they have traveled and how much fuel was purchased in every IFTA jurisdiction. The tax liabilities to each jurisdiction is set by applying a formula that incorporates the average fuel mileage. You end up with a list of what has been already paid to each member state/province, and whether you owe more or have overpaid. Your base jurisdiction (that is, where you got your carrier’s license) refunds you if you have overpaid and receives any amounts owing — then transfers funds to/from the other members. As you can see, the scheme relies heavily on the quarterly report that the carrier must submit.

In all of this, Falcon Elite Partners’s Dispatch will be by your side making sure you meet all the requirements and regulations