The Best Ways To Comply With IFTA Regulations
The 4th quarter IFTA deadline is almost here! It’s only a few days away on February 1. You need to have your IFTA return correctly turned in by the deadline.
That means that you need to provide all of the required information to complete your return, and you need to make sure that it’s correct, or you could face some major penalties. That’s why we’re going over the best way to comply with IFTA regulations.
The Best Ways To Comply With IFTA Regulations
The number one thing you can do to comply with IFTA regulations is to file with your base jurisdiction (home state) by the quarterly deadlines. This will greatly reduce your chances of receiving an IFTA audit.
Just be sure to complete your IFTA return accordingly to your jurisdiction’s individual requirements. For example, some states require you to e-file your IFTA return, while others require you to paper file. If you file incorrectly you could be penalized. View your state’s IFTA requirements here.
Here are the quarterly IFTA deadlines (unless the date falls on a weekend):
1st Quarter – April 30
2nd Quarter – July 31
3rd Quarter – October 31
4th Quarter January 31
Next, you will need to complete your IFTA return with all of the required information. This information is necessary to accurately calculate how much IFTA tax you owe. The taxes collected are redistributed to each jurisdiction.
You also need to make sure your information is correct, which is why you need to generate your IFTA report with ExpressIFTA because we will accurately calculate all of your IFTA calculations for you. This way human errors will be reduced and you’ll save tons of time by not having to handle complicated calculations yourself.
Plus, our pre-auditing feature will check your IFTA report for any basic errors such as miles reported in nonadjacent states, fuel purchases made in that you didn’t travel in, and if you report a fuel purchase in a state you didn’t travel in.
In order to complete your IFTA return you need:
- The total miles traveled per jurisdiction.
- The total amount of fuel consumed per jurisdiction.
- The tax paid gallons of fuel purchased per jurisdiction.
- And the current tax rate per jurisdiction.
If you fail to correctly complete your IFTA return by the deadline you will have to pay $50 or 10% of the tax you owe, depending on which amount is higher. Then you will face a monthly penalty of .4167% of the fuel tax you owe until you pay the amount in full.
On top of that, your base jurisdiction reserves the right to impose their own late filing penalties and may even revoke your IFTA license. However, this isn’t usually the case for first-time offenders. Also, even if you don’t owe any fuel taxes, the late filing penalty amount will be $50.
Luckily you can use our innovative IFTA reporting features to quickly upload all of your IFTA data and conveniently track it in one location online. We even accept ELD data to make the importing process super quick and easy.
Throughout the quarter all of your information will be compiled into a quarterly IFTA report that lists every calculation need to complete your return. It can be downloaded, printed, and emailed to go wherever it needs to!
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