Understanding IFTA

I'll give you an example. NJ was 17.5 cents a gal tax and we have on-site fueling and do 90% of our work in NJ BUT a lot in NYC and the Island plus some PA and both states were over 30 cents a gal.

We always had a credit in NJ and always had to pay to PA and NY for not buying any fuel there so we accruing 'credits' at $0.175 while running up debits at $0.30+ so we paid...

Then NJ almost doubled the fuel tax. so my 'credits' are now worth a lot more so we wipe out what we didn't buy in NY and PA -or- pay very little...past three quarters we owed like $25.00 one quarter and Zip the other two...

Not buying some of the high price fuel puts you in the same situation as we were when NJ was so cheap...You don't need to break the bank but if you are paying $300.00 a quarter [$1200 a year] you will cut it down by investing in a few hundred dollars worth of the higher priced state's fuel...

 

The main thing that matters is to pay the lowest "rack price", the actual cost of diesel without taxes. What you have to pay in IFTA because you didn't buy enough in this or that state will be made up by the money you saved by paying the least for the fuel itself.

 

I don't understand this. When I fill out my IFTA, you enter your miles traveled and your gallons purchased. Then the IFTA program figures the mpg from those figures. I don't know what there would be to track, other than your actual miles and gallons.

It makes zero difference what state you buy your fuel in, because you will pay any difference in tax when you fill out your IFTA.

 

It's only been a couple years ifta was online. Before that it was either do it longhand or buy software.
I still do mine longhand. Sometimes 3 or 4 times before I get it right. Just exercise for my brain.

The reason to check fuel without ifta included at your pump price. This is the lowest price and you're comparing apples to apples on the fuel price.

You're correct about the tax. The amount of tax you pay is relevant to the miles ran in each state.

 

And that is why you have a large ifta bill. Illinois has a higher tax than Missouri and Arkansas.

 

IL has some of the cheapest fuel in the nation (without the IFTA tax). Sometimes I wonder if the Mafia is involved. Hahaha.

 

It's also got the highest bio content which is subsidized with tax dollars. Bio fuel has less energy than regular petroleum fuel so you get less miles out of it.

 

The Cummins MPG Guide says that some biodiesel blends can affect fuel economy. B20 reduces fuel economy by 1%, while B5 has a negligible difference.

I ran the numbers for the 1% fuel economy reduction for B20, and it translates to about an additional cost of $0.03 per gallon. Nowadays, though, many truck stops have some biodiesel blend. Just recently, almost all TA/Petro locations have a biodiesel blend.

 

Why are you paying someone to do your IFTA? If your state has electronic filing, it is very easy to do.Base price buying, probably already mentioned, is the way to buy your fuel. Pump price minus state tax, and any other fees. You may pay a little more at the pump, but it works out at the end of the quarter. Example. NC fuel is 2.69 with a tax of .362 per gallon. Va fuel price is 2.72 with .2020 per gallon plus a sur tax at filing time. Va fuel needs to be .16 to .17 cents per gallon cheaper to even consider. Hope this helps. In ancient times I used a recorder, voice not musical instrument, to call out the od reading as I crossed a border. Been buying my own fuel since 1990. Hope this helps.