Fuelman, a division of FleetCor, is offering a free whitepaper about state and provincial fuel taxes called “Fleet Fuel Taxes: An expert answers questions from fleets.” Available online, the Q&A-style whitepaper is intended to address questions about the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) which impacts many fleets in the U.S. and Canada. The report was produced with the help of Al Uritis, a fuel tax expert and CEO/co-founder of Operating Tax Systems.
The whitepaper addresses numerous questions, from the broad to the detailed such as:
- How does IFTA work?
- Who qualifies for IFTA fuel tax filing?
- What information does IFTA require?
- If our fuel tax returns are audited, what documents do we need to provide?
- What about alternative fuels? Are they taxed?
Uritis delivers his answers in a straight-forward manner intended to provide useful information to fleets of all sizes. On the subject of audits, for instance, Uritis notes that: “An audit is an investigation into your IFTA records to expose any inconsistencies on your tax return. Many states require their tax agencies to conduct a certain number of fuel tax audits every year. This means that, even if you do everything by the book, you could still be audited in any given year, so it’s important to always be prepared.
“There are two types of audits: sample audits and full audits. Most of the audits performed yearly are sample audits in which the auditor will look at the records for approximately 10% of the trucks in your fleet to make sure that records have been kept accurately. In the rare case of a full audit, you will have to provide accurate records for every vehicle in your fleet for the entire audit period.”
The International Fuel Tax Agreement was established to make paying one type of tax, state and provincial fuel taxes, easier for fleets to deal with by consolidating the fuel tax returns for fleets operating in the continental United States and the Canadian Provinces. Filing one tax return has made dealing with fuel taxes easier, but it still remains a complex and detailed process that has to be managed properly if fleets are to avoid penalties and fines. This new whitepaper is presented to help fleets manage fuel taxes successfully.
