What Documentation for Filing IFTA Reports is Required?

Do you know what you need for documentation for filing IFTA taxes?  Each carrier is required to keep all receipts, either hard copy or electronic. The fuel tax payments must be submitted four times a year (each quarter) to the state where the business is based.  If over-payments occurred, a refund is due. If the taxes were underpaid, the difference is due. In addition to all receipts for fuel purchases, drivers must keep trip reports for miles traveled in each state.  Also, their IFTA license number and IFTA permit numbers are required. Log books cannot be used in place of trip reports because they only document hours of service.

Yeah, that seems pretty simple.

Keeping Your Receipts

Keeping track of little pieces of paper – it doesn’t sound hard, does it?  So why is it so simple to lose them?

Back in the day when I used an envelope system, I could still lose a receipt.  That was a pain in the you-know-what when it came time to do my IFTA.  But that was nothing compared to when one of my drivers lost his.  I could probably remember when and where I bought fuel.  My driver?  Maybe it was Ohio, maybe it was Indiana…

When cell phones cameras became normal, I figured we could just take pictures of the receipts and send them to my email with a standard subject line FUEL RECEIPT.  That worked pretty well, but we still had to enter the data into a spreadsheet I’d created.  It wasn’t the best solution.

The best solution is a trucking management solution that lets me enter my fuel purchases from my cab.  Along with the picture I took of my receipt,  I don’t have to worry about them again.  TruckingOffice software took care of tracking my miles per state.

Trucking software is a true solution because it solves the biggest problem I had:  the IFTA.

IFTA Per State

When I enter my fuel purchases into TruckingOffice software, the data doesn’t just sit there.  It gets used in several ways:

• IFTA reports
• IRP reports
• Fuel expenses report
• Expenses per trip
• Revenue per mile

and those are only a few of the ways we track and use data.  You don’t have to wait until the reports are due to know what you might expect to pay.  The quick IFTA report only takes a few seconds to show you where you should consider buying your next tank of fuel or how much money you’ll need to pay.  You don’t have to worry about the fuel tax amounts being current – we take care of that.

Say Goodbye to the Envelopes

We don’t need envelopes any more.  Little pieces of paper or credit card bills – all a part of the past.  Documentation for filing IFTA is now easier than filling your tanks.

It’s time to file the second quarter IFTA taxes.  How long is it going to take you?  How many envelopes do you have to go through?

Go ahead and sign up for your free trial of TruckingOffice trucking management software and enter the last quarter’s data in – free of charge.  You’ll get an IFTA report and be able to file your taxes without paying us.  We’re confident that you’ll know a good thing when you see it.