That sounds scary, how do you know all this? Have you seen it happen or just rumors as far as criminal bs and getting raped from every angle. So let’s say the cloud where you stored all of your information crashed and deleted all your info, do you get raped once again. Where I live I can’t even fill up untaxed diesel, I already paid my taxes right at the pump.
How do you not? We all agreed to the same info when we got our numbers. Have you had your new entrant safety audit yet? "Prove it." -the tax man
Yup and I passed it. Never heard of people getting criminal charges for ifta record keeping infractions
My business is compliance consulting. Per this forum's rules I am not permitted to solcit work or identify my company, so I just come on here to make sure accurate information gets out to those in need. I have been doing all sorts of DOT and other trucking regulatory compliance for 12 years now as a consultant and 29 years as a small fleet owner. As for criminal penalties, here is the offcial Illinois Revenue website, many states are similar. Motor Fuel Tax Fraud/Violations - Motor Fuel Taxes And, if you want more information straight from the source, here is the offcial IFTA website for the company that administers the program on behalf of the participating states. You will find info on how they conduct audits, their poilicies and other useful information. When picking a fight be sure to know the other side's playbook. https://www.iftach.org/manual2020.php
Forgot to include answers to your other questions. Recordkeeping is required to be redundant, so you need to be able to produce true copies if your orginals were lost. They don't care if you lost them or they were destroyed, although some legitimate reasons may be considered case by case. As for proof of fuel purchases, no reciepts no fuel purchased. IFTA is a tax and treated just like your income tax, same concept of guilty until you can prove otherwise.
They told Me, I was technically being Audited for 2020. That only the first quarter records would be needed, for audit. If there’s problems with it, might be requesting more. According to the original Letter, I was being Audited for the Statue of Limitations allowed. That’s how it read. I looked it up, it’s 4 yrs. That’s what I had expected. But it’s only the 1 qtr. Basically a spot check.
Hey Brian. I tried private messaging you, but it wouldn't let me. I have a quick question. I received an email notification of a pending IFTA and IRP audit. No call, no actual mail, just an email. I haven't responded to the agent yet. That got me looking into my returns from the period requested and I've found some discrepancies. If I just go back and amend the returns in question to correct them and make the proper payments, would that be an issue? I don't know if he's already got those returns sitting in front of him or when we go to set up the actual audit, that's when he'll pull them? My states IFTA page says that amended returns completely replace the existing ones. Thanks..
The site has a no solicitation policy so my messenger is disabled. I am allowed to give general advice. By the time they have selected you for an audit they will already have pulled the returns in most instances. Amending them before responding will look like you were trying to conceal something. If this is your first audit you will walk away with little in the way of fines, just the penalty interest on any unpaid balances. I believe when you amend an existing return there will be a late payment penalty as well so the outcome is almost identical. As for an auditor reaching out by email, that is not unheard of, just make sure they check out before replying with anything. There are a lot of high quality scams circulating right now.
As I'm closing the doors of my company I was the lucky winner to a ifta audit... Since everything is a mess, after emails and calls from auditor. I failed to present all the paperwork. I filled all the qrts in question. And got a whooping 198,000 bill in the mail.. Do Your paperwork. I'm not sure what I'm against now... Will post updates if I can.