Understanding IFTA

Pump price - ifta tax - any fuel card discount = best price.

Get fuel there.

 

Listen to landline now and they have a segment regarding the lowest price fuel. Most often, Illinois is in the top 5 for lowest price.

 

QUESTION -

So 90% of the time I buy my fuel in ND and drive in ND.


I’m setting up my IFTA here so I can drive in SD and MT. If is drive 10% of the time in those other 2 states will I be looking at a high quarterly IFTA payment or it will be a wash?

 

depends on each states tax rate...if the are all close to the same number, it will even out but if your home state has the cheapest tax rate you will end up paying unless you buy fuel in those states too

 

MT = 0.2945
ND = 0.2300
SD = 0.2800

So if you fuel only in MT, you’ll get a refund at the end of the quarter. If you fuel only in ND, you’ll owe money. The more important question is: How do you “really” save money? Buy fuel wherever it is cheapest, regardless of which states have the lowest or highest IFTA tax. Owning money to IFTA at the end of the quarter actually does not mean you’re losing money at all.

IFTA, Inc.

 

Buy the lowest pre-tax priced fuel.
Always.

 

And by chance if I ONLY fuel in ND and ONLY drive in ND I would owe zero, correct?

 

In theory yes, but some quarters you may owe,and others get a refund. As others have said,just buy the lowest pre tax fuel and it will take care of itself.

 

To answer your question, if you only fuel in ND and only drive there, then you will not owe anything (with an IFTA account). However, the scenario you’re talking about cannot repeat itself for long or else you risk having your IFTA account cancelled. The IFTA account is for those who conduct their trucking business in two or more states. If you get an IFTA account and decide to never use it, then you’ll eventually get your IFTA account cancelled.

As it’s been said before, forget about how high or low the IFTA tax is in every state. No matter how you slice it, you will always pay for the gallons burned in every state you traveled in. If you pay a lot of taxes at the pump, you’ll get a refund. If you pay little at the pump, you’ll owe money. In the end, it’s all the same.

 

I travel mostly in TN but sometimes go into surrounding states. I always either owe a little or have a little refund, usually less than a couple of bucks.

The last couple of quarters, I've been due a refund of $1 or so. There is a option to check "keep refund in the account", and I usually just do that, so when I owe a couple of bucks I can use that toward it. The problem is, when I do that, the next quarter will show no money in my account and won't let me use it. I got so aggravated, they owed me $0.27 the first quarter 2020, and I checked the box "send refund". So about a week later, I got a check from the state for $0.27. So they paid $0.55 for a stamp, to send me a check for $0.27. And I'm going to keep on doing it, as long as they keep stealing my refund out of my account.