IFTA, How?

I have found that I come out about as well by buying in the cheaper fuel states, for the most part. I would encourage you to do some trip planning. Check fuel prices along your route before starting out on your run. www.dieselboss.com has fuel prices for the major chains. I rarely pay over $25/quarter, if that (per truck). The idea is to pay as little as possible. I would not mind paying a little at the end of the quarter if I saved money during the reporting period. It doesn't need to be all that complicated. There is software that will do your IFTA calculations for you, such as Truckers Helper and Easy Trucking. Some states are now allowing carriers to file their IFTA online. The software does all of the calculations for you. Trucknpro is a good software that will give you a printout of your miles per juristiction (per state). It won't do the actual calculations, at this point, but is a good way to keep track of your business revenue and expenses. The way some carriers calculate your IFTA, you could be over paying your fuel taxes. They will do calculations based upon each trip. If you do your own then you can do all of the calculations based upon the entire quarter which may enable you to pay less in fuel taxes. For those who lease to a carrier, you can get your own IFTA account. Doing so will put all the reporting on you rather than the carrier. If you are an owner operator who is leased to a carrier, you are already doing most of the work. All you need to do is to total all miles in each state for each quarter. You can use a spreadsheet or buy some of the trucking software that does the calculations for you.

 

Sometimes it's the end of the tunnel, sometimes it's another train coming. The good news is: with time there seems to be fewer trains.

 

What I find interesting is that from what I can see by looking at the chart of fuel tax rates in each state, is that sometimes you pay some of the highest fuel tax rates at the pumps that offer the lowest prices per gallon. Indiana is a good example of this. They consistantly have some of the lowest prices at the pumps in this region, and are a "red state" (high) on the fuel tax scale.
This might not make sense at the logical level, but if you do a bit of research about the various elements that effect fuel prices from place to place, it becomes clearer. Ie: where the pipelines are, states like California that require cleaner burning fuel with limited refinerys etc., all play a role.
So maybe having good knowledge of fuel prices as well as tax rates can offer the best of both worlds. The best deals at the pump and a tax refund! ?
~BridgettAnn

 

Gravedigger, get the IFTA tax rate document off the Malone load board news and the daily T/A-Petro price document.

Take the IFTA pump tax for each state and subtract that for each location's "price you pay after discount" in the corresponding state to find the cheapest base price for fuel.

If you are any good with spreadsheets you can put the number right on the .xls version and put in the formula.

You will see a pattern that doesn't change too often of which locations in which states have the best base price on fuel. Plan your purchases accordingly.

Malone did me good on mpg for IFTA. I usually showed an even 7.0 mpg on the quarterly return. Even though I usually was a tad under that according to my calculations.



Like was stated before, it's usually the guys who run paycheck to paycheck who are worried about a few hundred dollar IFTA bill at the end of the quarter but they end up paying more each time they fuel up worrying about it instead of paying the lowest base price possible.

It's not complicated as some make it seem. Just subtract state IFTA pump tax from price you pay at pump to get base fuel price and buy at the cheapest base fuel price. Your IFTA miles you ran cannot be changed so don't worry about it.

 

where ya get in trouble with ifta is when you live in a low tax state like ga and run a lot of miles in higher states. ga for example is surrounded by states with higher fuel tax. guys that live will often fuel up here and run out and back, thusly thy buy 90 per cent of their fuel in ga. they end up owing a good chunk.

last year i bought fuel whereever the discount was less or when i needed fuel i filled up. i didnt concern myself with worrying with it. now my carrier, mercer , pays the fuel tax for its lease ops,but if you have a credit they apply it to next years tag. I ended up with a whopping 48 cents credit. i dang near did a near perfect zero ifta and didnt even give it a thought.

really, it shouldnt bite you unless you buy an extreme amount of fuel in a low tax state. if i remember when i had 2 trucks and leased 8 the most i ever paid was maybe 90 bucks in a quarter (i paid the tax for my lease ops)