About the IFTA Calculator: Scope and Limitations

Last updated 26 days ago

Overview

The IFTA Calculator is a paid add-on module within the existing ELD platform. It is designed to assist small carriers, owner-operators, and small fleets with organizing mileage, fuel, and tax-rate data for the preparation of quarterly IFTA-related calculations.

The IFTA Calculator generates reference calculations and reports based on data available in the platform and data entered, imported, corrected, or confirmed by the carrier.

The IFTA Calculator does not file IFTA returns, does not submit information to any jurisdiction, does not produce official jurisdiction-approved filing forms, and does not replace the carrier’s obligation to review, verify, correct, retain, and file its own IFTA records and returns.

The current MVP version supports diesel fuel only. Other fuel types are not included in the first release.

Access and Subscription

The IFTA Calculator is available only as a paid feature and requires an active subscription.

Before accessing the IFTA Calculator for the first time, the user must read and accept an acknowledgment summarizing the carrier’s responsibilities, the limitations of the module, and the fact that the carrier remains solely responsible for IFTA compliance, filing, payment, audit response, and recordkeeping.

Access to the IFTA Calculator may be restricted, suspended, or terminated if the carrier’s account or IFTA Calculator subscription is cancelled, expired, suspended, unpaid, downgraded, or otherwise inactive.

Clickwrap Acceptance

Access to the IFTA Calculator requires express electronic acceptance of the Acknowledgment and the IFTA Calculator Terms and Conditions.

Acceptance may be completed by clicking an “I Accept”, “Agree”, checkbox, or similar confirmation button before accessing or using the IFTA Calculator.

The platform may record and retain evidence of acceptance, including user ID, carrier/company account ID, date and time of acceptance, IP address, device/browser information, and the version of the acknowledgment and terms accepted.

Any user who accepts the acknowledgment or terms on behalf of a carrier confirms that they are authorized to do so.

Vehicles Included in Calculations

The IFTA Calculator includes vehicles registered in the carrier’s fleet within the ELD platform.

The system does not independently determine whether a vehicle is an IFTA-qualified vehicle.

The carrier is responsible for ensuring that only IFTA-qualified vehicles are used for IFTA reporting purposes.

If non-qualified vehicles are registered in the fleet, the carrier must review the data and ensure that such vehicles are excluded from IFTA filing or handled separately outside the IFTA Calculator.

Mileage Tracking

The IFTA Calculator assigns ELD-tracked mileage to IFTA jurisdictions based on available platform data.

Mileage is calculated using ELD, GPS, telematics, location, vehicle, and movement data available in the platform. The system uses this data to assign mileage to relevant IFTA jurisdictions.

The IFTA Calculator may also provide a per-vehicle location tracking report, exportable in CSV format. This report may contain ELD-captured location records at intervals of at least every 10 minutes and may be used by the carrier as supporting information for jurisdiction crossings and IFTA audit preparation.

The carrier remains responsible for reviewing, verifying, correcting, and supplementing all mileage, jurisdiction allocation, location, and vehicle data before using any report for IFTA preparation, filing, audit response, or recordkeeping.

No Guarantee of ELD, GPS, Location, or Mileage Accuracy

The IFTA Calculator relies on data available in the ELD platform. Such data may be affected by technical, operational, or human factors, including GPS signal loss, device malfunction, hardware issues, software errors, connectivity limitations, delayed synchronization, incorrect vehicle assignment, driver error, manual edits, missing data, duplicated records, or incomplete route information.

The company does not guarantee that ELD, GPS, location, mileage, jurisdiction assignment, border-crossing detection, or vehicle data will be complete, uninterrupted, accurate, error-free, or suitable for IFTA filing without carrier review.

The carrier must correct, supplement, or exclude any incomplete, inaccurate, duplicated, missing, or non-qualifying mileage before relying on any IFTA Calculator report.

Taxable and Non-Taxable Mileage

By default, the IFTA Calculator treats all ELD-tracked mileage as taxable mileage.

The system does not automatically identify, determine, or apply jurisdiction-specific exemptions, including but not limited to:

  • off-highway miles;

  • reservation road miles;

  • agricultural use exemptions;

  • special permit travel;

  • fuel-use exemptions;

  • temporary or jurisdiction-specific exemptions;

  • any other exemption recognized by a particular jurisdiction.

The carrier is responsible for identifying any mileage that qualifies as non-taxable or exempt under applicable jurisdiction-specific rules.

The carrier must use the mileage correction feature to record exempt, corrected, or non-taxable mileage and must maintain supporting documentation outside the system.

Mileage Corrections and Manual Mileage Additions

The IFTA Calculator allows the carrier to correct ELD-tracked mileage per vehicle and per jurisdiction.

The carrier may also manually add mileage for a jurisdiction that was not detected by the ELD data.

Any correction, manual addition, or reclassification of mileage is made by the carrier and remains the carrier’s responsibility.

The carrier must maintain supporting documentation for any correction or manually added mileage, including trip records, dispatch records, route documentation, driver records, or other relevant evidence required for IFTA audit purposes.

Fuel Records

The IFTA Calculator allows the carrier to add diesel fuel purchases manually or by CSV import.

For each fuel record, the carrier must indicate whether the fuel was Tax Paid or Not Tax Paid.

The IFTA Calculator records the Tax Paid status exactly as entered or imported by the carrier and uses that status directly in reference calculations.

The system does not verify whether fuel tax was actually paid, whether the purchase qualifies for IFTA credit, whether the receipt is valid, or whether the fuel was properly assigned to a vehicle, jurisdiction, or reporting quarter.

The carrier is responsible for entering complete and accurate fuel records and for maintaining original fuel receipts outside the system.

Fuel Included and Excluded

The MVP version of the IFTA Calculator supports diesel fuel only.

The carrier must include all diesel fuel placed into the main supply tank of IFTA-qualified vehicles.

The carrier must not enter fuel or products that should not be included in IFTA calculations, including:

  • reefer fuel;

  • DEF / diesel exhaust fluid;

  • dyed off-road diesel;

  • tax-exempt fuel;

  • fuel not placed into the vehicle’s main supply tank;

  • fuel used for non-qualified vehicles;

  • fuel types other than diesel.

Carriers with mixed-fuel fleets must use separate filing methods or professional support for non-diesel vehicles.

Tax Rates and Surcharges

The IFTA Calculator obtains tax rates and surcharges from the IFTA Tax Rate Matrix published by IFTA, Inc., on or around the end of each quarter or at another time determined by the company based on technical and operational availability.

The IFTA Calculator uses the rates and surcharges available from IFTA, Inc. at the time of capture.

The carrier remains responsible for verifying the applicable tax rates, surcharges, footnotes, and jurisdiction-specific instructions at the time of filing, especially if IFTA, Inc. publishes corrections, errata, late updates, or other changes after the system’s rate capture.

Reference Calculation Method

The IFTA Calculator generates IFTA-related reference calculations based on the following data:

  • ELD-tracked mileage;

  • carrier-entered mileage corrections;

  • carrier-added mileage;

  • diesel fuel records entered manually or imported by CSV;

  • Tax Paid status entered by the carrier;

  • fleet and vehicle records available in the platform;

  • tax rates and surcharges published by IFTA, Inc. and captured by the system.

The IFTA Calculator may calculate Fleet Average MPG using fuel records linked to fleet vehicles, regardless of whether the fuel record is marked as Tax Paid or Not Tax Paid.

The system then generates quarterly IFTA-related reference calculations at fleet level and per-vehicle level.

IFTA Report Output

The IFTA Calculator generates a non-official IFTA reference report that the carrier may review and use as supporting information when independently preparing and filing through its base jurisdiction’s portal.

The report may include, depending on available data:

  • mileage by jurisdiction;

  • taxable mileage;

  • taxable gallons;

  • tax-paid gallons;

  • net taxable gallons;

  • tax or credit reference amounts;

  • applicable surcharge reference amounts;

  • fleet average MPG;

  • per-vehicle breakdowns;

  • fleet-level totals.

The generated report is not an official IFTA return, is not a jurisdiction-specific filing form, and is not a guarantee of compliance, accuracy, audit acceptance, tax treatment, or filing correctness.

The carrier must independently review and verify the report before filing.

Filing Status Marker

The IFTA Calculator allows the carrier to mark a quarter as filed within the system for internal record-keeping purposes only.

This marker does not constitute filing, confirmation of filing, payment, acceptance, processing, approval, or receipt by any jurisdiction.

Marking a quarter as filed in the system does not submit any data to a government portal.

The underlying data remains editable after a quarter is marked as filed. The carrier is responsible for exporting and preserving a copy of the report and supporting data as they existed at the time of actual filing.

Audit Log

The IFTA Calculator keeps an audit log of changes made to mileage data, fuel records, and filing status.

The audit log may include information such as:

  • the type of change made;

  • the user who made the change;

  • the date and time of the change;

  • affected mileage, fuel, or filing-status records.

The audit log is intended to record internal system change history.

It does not replace the carrier’s obligation to maintain underlying business records, including fuel receipts, trip logs, dispatch records, route documentation, exemption documentation, or other records required for IFTA audit purposes.

Record Retention

The IFTA Calculator retains IFTA-related data for at least four years while the carrier’s account is active and the IFTA Calculator subscription is current.

This retention period is intended to align with general IFTA record retention expectations.

However, the system does not guarantee that data will remain accessible after subscription termination, cancellation, non-payment, suspension, downgrade, account closure, or loss of access.

The carrier is responsible for exporting and saving its IFTA reports, CSV files, audit logs, and other relevant records before subscription termination, cancellation, non-payment, suspension, downgrade, account closure, or loss of access.

Records Not Stored in the MVP

The current MVP version of the IFTA Calculator does not store original fuel receipts, mileage supporting documentation, exemption documents, trip logs, dispatch records, route documentation, or other carrier business records.

The carrier must maintain these documents outside the platform and keep them available for IFTA audit purposes.

Future versions may allow the carrier to attach fuel receipts and supporting documents to mileage corrections or fuel records, including PDF and image files. Such functionality is not part of the current MVP unless expressly released and made available in the platform.

Functions Not Provided by the IFTA Calculator

The IFTA Calculator does not:

  • file IFTA returns with any jurisdiction;

  • submit data to state, provincial, or base jurisdiction portals;

  • produce official jurisdiction-specific filing forms;

  • calculate penalties or interest;

  • calculate late filing amounts;

  • calculate amended return obligations;

  • cover non-IFTA taxes;

  • calculate weight-distance taxes;

  • calculate state-specific mileage taxes;

  • calculate federal HVUT;

  • support fuel types other than diesel;

  • automatically determine IFTA-qualified vehicles;

  • automatically identify or apply jurisdiction-specific exemptions;

  • verify the accuracy of fuel receipts;

  • store fuel receipts or supporting documents in the MVP version;

  • respond to audits;

  • communicate with jurisdictions on the carrier’s behalf;

  • guarantee that records or reports will be accepted during an IFTA audit.

Carrier Responsibilities

The carrier remains responsible for:

  • ensuring that only IFTA-qualified vehicles are included in IFTA reporting;

  • ensuring the accuracy and completeness of ELD data, mileage data, fuel data, and vehicle data;

  • entering and importing correct diesel fuel records;

  • correctly marking each fuel purchase as Tax Paid or Not Tax Paid;

  • excluding reefer fuel, DEF, dyed off-road diesel, tax-exempt fuel, and other excluded fuel;

  • identifying and recording non-taxable or exempt mileage;

  • maintaining supporting documentation for mileage corrections and manually added mileage;

  • maintaining original fuel receipts outside the system;

  • selecting the correct reporting quarter;

  • reviewing all calculations before filing; verifying tax rates and surcharges at the time of filing;

  • filing the IFTA return through the base jurisdiction portal;

  • calculating any penalties, interest, or amended return amounts if applicable;

  • responding to audits and jurisdiction correspondence;

  • exporting records before subscription termination, cancellation, non-payment, suspension, downgrade, account closure, or loss of access.

Marketing and UI Interpretation

Any wording in the product interface, marketing materials, tooltips, help articles, support communications, or product screens such as “calculate”, “report”, “IFTA return”, “filed”, “tax due”, “credit due”, or similar terminology is used for convenience and product navigation only.

Such wording does not mean that the company files returns, certifies compliance, guarantees accuracy, provides tax advice, prepares official IFTA returns, guarantees audit acceptance, or assumes the carrier’s legal obligations.

In case of any inconsistency between product wording and the IFTA Calculator Terms and Conditions, the IFTA Calculator Terms and Conditions shall prevail.

Summary

The IFTA Calculator is a preparation and calculation support tool.

It assists the carrier by organizing available ELD mileage data, diesel fuel records, carrier-entered corrections, and official IFTA tax-rate data into reference calculations and non-official reports that may be used by the carrier during quarterly IFTA preparation.

The carrier remains fully responsible for IFTA compliance, data accuracy, supporting documentation, filing, payment, audit response, and record retention.