IFTA Question
 

Can anyone give me just a guesstimate of how much a quarterly IFTA would amount to? I'm new at this and although the company I'm leased to does it for me I would like something to at least put into my running expenses. Anything would be a help. I run an average of 10800 miles a month, mostly in CA, AZ, UT, OR, WA. Or, maybe just what some of you paid per quarter this year. That would help a lot!

Thanks so much.

Mad Hog

There is no way anyone can tell you exactly how much you will spend on IFTA without knowing how many miles and how much fuel you purchase in each state. If you want to do your own calculations you need to check online and get the fuel tax rates and start tracking your miles and gallons purchased. I rarely spend more than $25/quarter.

If you are running one truck anywhere between $25 to $100 a quarter. Depends IF you cover the miles you run in each state with fuel purchased. Depends how your company calculates the report. Do they do it to each individual truck or the fleet as a whole?

Give you an idea:

CA is .4370
AZ is.2600
UT is .2450
OR is 0
WA is .3750

These are the tax rates as of last quarter.

In what states will you be buying your fuel?

Make yourself a trip sheet and keep track of your own miles traveled in every state you run along with fuel purchases, record the gallons of fuel and the state you purchased in. It is not hard to do, as the state you file in will have an easy to understand worksheet along with the amount of the taxes in each state. And, and this is a BIG AND, if you buy your own base plate you will need this info when it is time to renew your base plate on the IRP form. Make this a daily habit to record all of this info, as it will save you allot of time and money if you take the few minutes a day to record. It is just a good habit to get into.

And it is good to know how each state charges you, as it may be cheaper to pay a bit more for fuel in one state than t

There really is no way to tell what your Quarterly IFTA payment will be. I always buy the cheapest fuel I can along my route... not pump price, which really doesn't mean anything, but by pre-tax price. This is the only smart way to run. I have had as much as a $276 REFUND doing it this way and I have owed as much as $150. It depends mostly on what routes I run, but you can never go wrong buying the cheapest fuel.