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ifta_quarterly_painOP
2020 Peterbilt 579, MX-13, 18-speed, dry van, own authority
RegionalLittle Rock, AR46 posts, joined Jul 2025
second quarter closed yesterday. return is due July 31, which in my house means i do it July 29 at the kitchen table with a calculator and a bad attitude.
2020 Pete 579, own authority, dry van, mostly Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana with a Missouri run when the money is there. last year i filed straight off the IFTA report my ELD spits out and got a letter from Arkansas DFA about one quarter. the ELD had a GPS gap and gave me zero miles in Mississippi in a quarter where i bought fuel in Mississippi twice. they did not fine me, i sent the corrected miles and the receipts, but it ate a whole weekend.
so how is everybody else doing it? ELD export as is, ELD plus a paper check, a filing service at 30 or 40 a quarter, or the notebook on the dash? for the new people, the base jurisdiction rules and the member list are on iftach.org, which reads like it was written by a committee because it was.
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ooida_member_lou
2018 Kenworth W900L, X15, 18-speed, leased on since 2009
Over the roadColumbus, OH77 posts, joined Jul 2025
leased on, so the carrier files and takes the fuel tax out of my settlement. i would rather pay them than learn it at 61.
that said i pull their state mile report once a quarter and check it against my own. last fall they had me down for 1,100 miles of Indiana i never drove. somebody keyed another truck number into mine. three emails to get it off. if you are leased on and you never look at that report, you are trusting a clerk with your money.
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pocatello_flatbed
2021 Volvo VNL 760, D13 500, I-Shift, step deck and flat, own authority
RegionalPocatello, ID27 posts, joined Jul 2025
own authority out of Idaho. ELD export, and i keep every fuel receipt in a gallon zip bag with the quarter written on it in sharpie. low tech, works.
the one that got me my first year was Oregon. a heavy truck there does not pay Oregon fuel tax through IFTA, it pays weight-mile tax, a separate report to ODOT. i did not know, ran four loads of lumber out of Medford, and got a very polite letter with a very impolite number on it. if you go into Oregon even once, look that up before you go.
homework question from a company driver. if i lease on like lou, are the decals and the license the carrier's, or do i still need my own IFTA account? and for year one on my own, is a filing service worth the money or is it something you should learn by doing it wrong once?
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ifta_quarterly_painOP
2020 Peterbilt 579, MX-13, 18-speed, dry van, own authority
RegionalLittle Rock, AR46 posts, joined Jul 2025
leased on, it is almost always the carrier's license and their decals on your doors, and they bill you for the tax. read the lease to be sure, a few make you carry your own.
on your own authority it is your license, from your base state, and you file every quarter even if you sat in the yard all quarter. a zero return is still a return.
year one, pay the service. i would. not because it is hard, it is arithmetic, but because you need to see what a clean return looks like once before you trust your own. then do it yourself and keep the 160 a year.
reefer guys, one thing nobody told me. the reefer unit burns diesel out of its own tank and that fuel is not road fuel. if you fill the reefer tank on the same pump receipt as the tractor, you will report gallons you never burned on the road and your mpg on the return looks worse than it is.
for two years i did exactly that. the lady at the fuel desk at the truck stop on Mines Road finally told me to ask for split receipts. i figure it cost me a few hundred a quarter before she said something.
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ifta_quarterly_painOP
2020 Peterbilt 579, MX-13, 18-speed, dry van, own authority
RegionalLittle Rock, AR46 posts, joined Jul 2025
filed tuesday, so i beat my own July 29 by nothing.
31,842 miles, 5,140 gallons, 6.19 mpg. owed Texas and Tennessee, credit back from Arkansas and Oklahoma where i bought more than i burned. net check was 212.40. this time i ran the ELD export and my paper notes side by side and they agreed within 40 miles for the quarter, which is the first time ever.
pocatello, i looked up the Oregon weight-mile thing out of curiosity. glad i do not go west of Amarillo.
