IFTA IRP question for OTR

IRP is your registration/plate, IFTA is fuel taxes and filing to make taxes you paid at the pump go to the states you burned it in. The form question is an IRP form. You either choose the states based on your business plan or just put all 48 on there (minus CA if you're not compliant). Use your state's estimated mileage chart to fill it in.

You would have to get a permit to travel in states you don't have on your plate. Pretty much each trip. Most I've seen start with 48 (plus Canadian provinces if you're going there) their first year, then narrow it down, if appropriate, on renewals.

 

This may be a silly question, but what are the benefits of weeding down your 48(or 47) state plate after the first year? Is there a cost savings if you only get, say, 15 state? 5 state?

 

It could reduce the cost of your base plate to leave states off. Kansas tries to collect a property tax on carriers for a percentage of the value of your equipment based upon the percentage of miles you run in their state. If you don't report miles in the state they will send you a bill for $500 for trucks that you may not even own. It is corrupt. If it sounds crazy, it is. You could leave Kansas off your IRP and IFTA and either stay out of the state or not report miles in Kansas to avoid the property tax assessment. That could save you money. I think that Kansas plan on charging $400 on our IRP next year and eliminating the property tax. Corrupt states such as California, Kansas and a few others could feel the impact if you leave off those states. You may or may not see a significant drop in the cost of your base plate (IRP). Last year I left off most of the western states. I added them on this year and only paid about $30 more than I did last year. If you leave off states and need to travel to a state not on your IRP, you can always get a trip permit.

 

Yes and no.

Let's say you only ran 5 states in 2012 and you plan to run the same 5 in 2013. Simplest and cheapest thing to do is report your miles for those 5 states only and renew for those 5 states only.

Problem is if you need to go to other states you will need to "ammend your cab card" to add those states. There is a fee (it was $50 a few years ago) to ammend + the IRP fee that the states charge (amount varies deending on if you use method 1 or method 2 to report your mileage). And then you will need to visit the IRP office IN PERSON to pick up your new cab card. This is so inconvenient it's usually a deal breaker. Instead of ammending your cab card, you can get a trip permit but that costs the same as ammending your cab card plus you are limited to a narrow time frame that you are allowed to travel.

 

The IRP plate fees are calculated in two tiers, actual and estimated. If you travel in 5 jurisdictions, the miles from those jurisdictions are totaled as the actual base. The actual jurisdictional miles are divided by the actual base to make up 100% fees. Each of the jurisdictional percentages are multiplied by the full plate fees.

Any jurisdictions that you want to add without actual miles are estimated and make up the second tier. The total jurisdictional estimated miles plus the total actual miles make up the base for the second tier. Each estimated jurisdictional miles are divided by the second tier total to determine the percentages multiplied by the full plate fee. This tier is above the 100%. The affect of this depends on how high the actual miles were compared to how high the estimated miles are. If your actual miles are low and estimated miles are based on jurisdictional charts, it will cost more than if you have high actual miles and are allowed to calculate your own estimates.

 

so will i get a discount by leaving off canada next year?

the plate came with it. but i'm not allowed up there.

 

If you have no actual travel in a jurisdiction and you do not plate with that jurisdiction, you will not a get a discount. You will still be required to pay fees for the jurisdictions with actual miles at calculated into percentages totaling 100%. To add jurisdictions with no actual travel such as Canada, you will be required to pay a premium over 100%.

Basically it will cost you more to continue to have the creditials for jurisdictions which you did not actual travel during the mileage reporting period.