Fix These Common IFTA Fuel Tax Mistakes for Safer Filing

A big welcome to our blog, IFTA filers. As carriers, you would be navigating through the roads all the time, but when it comes to navigating your IFTA fuel tax liabilities, we always tend to take the wrong turn.

Over the years, we have noticed that the tedious paper work and regulations are hard on you, and keeping them up is another task in hand. However, today we would speak about the most common errors committed by our filers when it comes to IFTA fuel tax reporting:

  • ·         Log Books Are More Popular Than Daily Trip Reports:

This seems to be a problematic concern, as logbooks do not capture all the information required to prepare the quarterly fuel tax return. In addition, there are some different retention requirements for logbooks and trip receipts.

  • ·         Receipts For The Fuel Purchased Go Missing:  

Whenever you fill your tank, ensure that you collect and retain the fuel receipts or invoice from a third party vendor for four years

  • ·         Not Meeting the Retention Requirements:

Many small or large companies are not well aware about the IFTA/ IRP regulations. Every motor carrier is required to maintain IFTA tax return, along with the trip reports, fuel receipts and other supporting documents for four years from the applicable due date.

  • ·         Maintenance of Incomplete Trip Reports:

It can be a serious headache to gather your papers, ensuring they are complete and legible. Fill in the blanks, correct that sloppy handwriting and rectify the errors to cut down issues during inspection.

  • ·         Using the Dispatch System To Calculate The Miles:

The concern with these dispatch systems to calculate your IFTA taxes is that it calculates the miles from pickup of the goods to the delivery. It does not capture the miles driven to the pickup point or after the delivery is made, which results in unreported miles.

  • ·         Not Reporting Personal Or Unloaded Miles:

It is mandatory to report all the miles, let be when the rig is loaded, unloaded or bobtailed.

  • ·         Not Filing Miles in the Correct Quarter:

In trucking industry, the priority belongs to moving freight. There are times when the carrier get so caught up with the aspect of businesses, they hardly find time to prepare their quarterly tax and the last minute preparation end without capturing the last couple of trips made in the quarter. And typically, these carriers report those unreported miles in the following quarter.

However, there is no malicious intent behind this act, the fact remains that all the miles traveled and gallons purchased in the quarter should be accurately calculated and so reported. This misapplication can result in unfavorable results during the audit.

Well, if you think you should be moving one step ahead of these errors and eliminate the costly mistakes in your IFTA fuel tax report, think about joining hands with TaxIFTA.com, a product of ThinkTrade Inc. one stop service provider for all your tax requirements. You can prepare your return with us online and simply mail it across to your base jurisdiction.

 The major advantage you get when you are preparing with TaxIFTA.com is that the errors are left behind and the calculations are apt. What else are you thinking about? Let us know, we can implement that as well.For more assistance, get in touch with our tax experts on 1-866-245-3918 or shoot an email to support@taxexcise.com. We would love to hear from you.