IFTA audit - any ifta attorney's ?

I edited the post to make it clear that I was giving information on the billing process and do not know the how the LLC affects the billing process. I hope that I made things more clear as to what I was trying to convey.

 

Hello, I am new to this forum, and I wanted to ask FormerINAuditor. We have had our IFTA account open since 2010, I just received a letter saying that I will get audited. The letter says is a routine audit and that I should not feel bad for them choosing us. I had drivers working for us before but I had a huge problem when it came to them filling out the trip sheet so I did them in the office. They did do log books and I have all fuel receipts. They did not documented routes nor odometers when crossing state lines, however to work on IFTA I used Google maps to calculate miles per state based on the log stops. Do you think this will be a problem. And also is there always a reason why they pick companies or is it really random?

 

they will open doors on trucks and ck mi. logs will be ck.

 

Jurisdictions are required to audit 3% of accounts each year per IFTA regulations. Audits are selected based on a number of factors, some being hitting stats that indicate problems and others just random. My jurisdiction liked to audit "new" carriers as soon as the carrier would count towards both the IFTA and IRP requirements. The requirements are for a full year so the first year would not count. The second year doesn't usually count towards IRP because of estimated miles on the application. Usually the third year was first available for audit. The auditing "new" carriers was looked at as a way to make sure they knew what was required before going years with problems. Ask the auditor a lot of questions, they will help you if possible. Make sure to let them know you want to do it right. My jurisdiciton required a recordkeeping requirements review during the final conference to let the taxpayers know what was required and suggest ways to do that.

When you are audited you actually are taxed on fuel but apportioned by the percentage of miles by jurisdiciton. If you have all the fuel and the MPGs were reasonable you should be fine. Basically, the auditor will take the stops and track them in the same manner you did with the information that you had. I would suggest in the future that you take quarterly odometer readings and make sure all the miles are accounted for. The post stated that you did not have stateline odometer readings, does that mean you do have beginning and ending? If so there shouldn't be a problem because you have accounted for the miles in a reasonable amount. When I tracked miles with beginning and ending odometeres giving total miles, I tracked using PC Miler as a minimum then divided any remaining miles between the origin, destination and fuel stops.

Your taking the time to create the trip reports shows that you knew there was a problem and were trying to handle it in a reasonable manner. That is more than some carriers do.

 

Just got hit with ifta/irp audit. What is the max penalty/fine/interest if I give them zero documents and just pay them AGAIN to leave me alone?

 

In ill its like $3500 but they wont leave you alone

 

Spoken like a true politician and bureaucrat!

 

Personal insults are not allowed on TTR.

 

Zombie thread 10 years old, auditor hasn't visited since 2015.

That said, the hostility posted by the auditor begs for insults. My IRP/IFTA audit last year went that way, as-if the woman was desperate to find problems versus just looking for irregularities. I complied with the notice, on time, with all source data and work for the period being reviewed. There was nothing there.

So of course she created a problem and tried to assess an additional $400 tax due. It was the product of two things. She was just not able to wrap her brain around split berth logging with work days spanning across midnight, and was using an old copy of promiles to second guess routes. Without actually saying it, she was convinced I was cheating but could not rationalize it. After I posted the protest, it was her boss that called me to explain those things. He got it straight away and zeroed out the claim.