When are IFTA returns due?

At the end of the month following the quarter: 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January. Note that 31 October 2026 and 31 January 2027 both fall on a Saturday. A deadline landing on a weekend usually moves to the next business day, but handling varies by base jurisdiction — filing by the Friday avoids the question entirely.

Do I have to file IFTA if the truck did not run?

Yes. A quarter with no activity still needs a return, usually called a zero return. It takes a few minutes, and failing to file one is treated the same as filing late — the penalty applies regardless of whether any tax was owed.

What records do I need to keep for IFTA?

Trip records showing the route and the miles driven in each jurisdiction, and original fuel receipts showing the date, seller, gallons and jurisdiction of purchase. Four years from the due or filing date is the usual retention requirement, and an audit can reach across that whole window, so keep them somewhere that outlasts your current spreadsheet.

Does IFTA software calculate what I owe?

Most of it does not, and you should check rather than assume. Rates are set per jurisdiction and change quarterly, so the defensible thing for software to produce is the worksheet — miles by jurisdiction and net gallons — which you or your accountant file from. DispatchInAI works this way: it reports net gallons and does not calculate the tax owed.

Do deadhead and personal miles count for IFTA?

Yes. IFTA is about fuel burned, not revenue earned, so empty miles count exactly like loaded ones. Personal and off-road miles also have to be accounted for even where they are treated differently for tax, which is why leaving them out of your mileage records creates a discrepancy rather than a saving.

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IFTA quarterly filing, without the scramble

IFTA is not difficult. It is just unforgiving about records you were supposed to be keeping three months ago. Almost every painful quarter traces back to the same thing — miles or fuel that were never captured at the time — and that is a habit problem rather than a filing problem.

This is general information about how the IFTA process works, not tax advice. Rules are administered by your base jurisdiction and they differ in the details — rates, forms, portals and how deadlines falling on a weekend are handled. Confirm anything that affects a filing with your base jurisdiction or your accountant.

What IFTA is for

Fuel tax is owed to the jurisdiction where fuel is burned, not where it is bought. Before IFTA, a carrier running several states had to file separately in each one. The International Fuel Tax Agreement replaces that with a single quarterly return filed with your base jurisdiction, which then redistributes the tax to the others on your behalf.

The consequence that catches people out is that buying fuel in a cheap state does not avoid tax — it creates a credit there and a liability where the miles were actually driven. The return reconciles the two.

What you actually have to report

Miles driven in each jurisdiction. Every mile, split by state or province, including empty and personal miles. Deadhead counts — the trailer being empty does not make the fuel free.

Fuel purchased in each jurisdiction. Gallons and the jurisdiction of purchase, supported by receipts. A receipt that does not show the gallons, the date and the seller is usually not enough on its own.

A return every quarter, even a quiet one. If the truck did not move, you still file — a zero return. Not filing is its own problem regardless of whether any tax was owed.

The deadlines, and a 2026 trap

Returns are due at the end of the month following the end of the quarter: 30 April for Q1, 31 July for Q2, 31 October for Q3 and 31 January for Q4.

Worth checking this year specifically: 31 October 2026 falls on a Saturday, and so does 31 January 2027 for Q4. The usual rule is that a deadline landing on a weekend or holiday moves to the next business day, but handling varies by base jurisdiction and published guidance is inconsistent about it. The safe approach is to file by the Friday rather than work out whether you have an extra weekend — confirm with your base jurisdiction if you need the exact date.

Late filing is commonly reported as attracting a penalty of $50 or 10% of the net tax due, whichever is greater, plus interest — but the amounts and how they are applied are set by your jurisdiction, so treat that as the shape of the risk rather than a quoted figure. Repeated non-filing can put the IFTA licence itself at risk, which is the consequence that actually stops a truck.

Where quarters actually go wrong

In practice the bad quarters are not caused by the arithmetic. They are caused by records that were never captured, and by then it is too late to fix cheaply.

Fuel receipts that never made it off the dashboard. A receipt photographed at the pump is captured; one kept in a folder for later is the one that goes missing.
Miles estimated rather than recorded. Reconstructing a quarter from memory and a map is slow, and it is exactly what an audit looks hardest at.
Personal and off-road miles treated as if they did not happen. They still have to be accounted for, even when they are not taxable in the same way.
Reefer fuel mixed in with tractor fuel. Fuel burned by a refrigeration unit is treated differently; buying both on one transaction without splitting them creates a problem months later.
A quiet quarter with no return filed. A zero return takes minutes; not filing one is treated as a late filing.

Keep the records, not just the return

The return is a summary. What matters in an audit is the underlying detail — trip records showing routes and jurisdiction mileage, and the original fuel receipts. Four years from the filing or due date is the usual retention requirement, and jurisdictions can ask for records across that whole window, so storage needs to outlive whatever spreadsheet you were using at the time.

Make it a habit, not a quarter-end event

The carriers who find IFTA painless are not better at tax. They capture two things as they happen — the fuel receipt at the pump and the miles against the load — so the quarter is already assembled when the deadline arrives. Everything else is formatting. The four weeks after a quarter closes are enough time to file comfortably and nowhere near enough time to reconstruct three months of records.

What software can and cannot do here

Be clear-eyed about where the line is. Software is genuinely good at accumulating miles by jurisdiction as loads are run, reading gallons and dates off fuel receipts, and producing a worksheet you or your accountant file from. That removes the reconstruction, which is the expensive part.

What it does not do is decide your tax. Rates change quarterly, jurisdictions differ, and exemptions are specific. DispatchInAI's IFTA worksheet reports miles by jurisdiction and net gallons; it does not calculate the tax owed, and any tool that claims to should be asked how it handles your base jurisdiction's current rates.

Common questions

When are IFTA returns due?: At the end of the month following the quarter: 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January. Note that 31 October 2026 and 31 January 2027 both fall on a Saturday. A deadline landing on a weekend usually moves to the next business day, but handling varies by base jurisdiction — filing by the Friday avoids the question entirely.
Do I have to file IFTA if the truck did not run?: Yes. A quarter with no activity still needs a return, usually called a zero return. It takes a few minutes, and failing to file one is treated the same as filing late — the penalty applies regardless of whether any tax was owed.
What records do I need to keep for IFTA?: Trip records showing the route and the miles driven in each jurisdiction, and original fuel receipts showing the date, seller, gallons and jurisdiction of purchase. Four years from the due or filing date is the usual retention requirement, and an audit can reach across that whole window, so keep them somewhere that outlasts your current spreadsheet.
Does IFTA software calculate what I owe?: Most of it does not, and you should check rather than assume. Rates are set per jurisdiction and change quarterly, so the defensible thing for software to produce is the worksheet — miles by jurisdiction and net gallons — which you or your accountant file from. DispatchInAI works this way: it reports net gallons and does not calculate the tax owed.
Do deadhead and personal miles count for IFTA?: Yes. IFTA is about fuel burned, not revenue earned, so empty miles count exactly like loaded ones. Personal and off-road miles also have to be accounted for even where they are treated differently for tax, which is why leaving them out of your mileage records creates a discrepancy rather than a saving.

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