Why IFTA is its own track, not a tax form
IFTA is the International Fuel Tax Agreement between the lower 48 states and most Canadian provinces. A carrier buys fuel in one jurisdiction, drives through eleven others, and reports the tax net on a single quarterly return. The agreement is what keeps the small fleet from filing fourteen separate state fuel-tax returns every three months — but it also keeps the deadline surface in one place.
Mileafi treats IFTA as its own track for exactly that reason. One deadline calendar, one return per quarter, one set of per-jurisdiction credits.
The four quarterly due dates
IFTA returns are due on the last day of the month immediately following each calendar quarter. The dates are fixed by the agreement — they do not move for weekends or holidays, because that would mean a state-by-state patchwork.
- Q1 (Jan–Mar): due April 30 - Q2 (Apr–Jun): due July 31 - Q3 (Jul–Sep): due October 31 - Q4 (Oct–Dec): due January 31 of the following year
If January 31 falls on a Sunday, the carrier still has until Sunday — the agreement does not roll forward to the next business day. The form is the IFTA-100 (sometimes IFTA-101 for new carriers). Mileafi prepares the IFTA-100 from per-truck odometer + fuel-card feeds and mails a signed PDF to your base-state IFTA office.
What the return actually covers
The IFTA-100 is mileage + gallons, broken down by member jurisdiction. The mileage side is total miles driven in each jurisdiction during the quarter — reefer miles count, idle miles do not, and personal use does not. The gallons side is total fuel purchased in each jurisdiction (tax-paid + tax-exempt).
The math on the return is: miles-per-gallon by jurisdiction → net tax owed or credit due. A jurisdiction where the carrier bought more fuel than it burned is a credit. A jurisdiction where the carrier burned more than it bought is a debit. The IFTA clearinghouse nets them out and the base state sends one bill or one refund — never fourteen.
Where Mileafi thinks most small fleets slip
Most IFTA misses we see are not the deadline — they are the per-jurisdiction record. An odometer reading is fine; the gap is the per-state allocation. Mileafi pairs each fueling receipt with the GPS leg from the fuel card and seeds the per-jurisdiction mileage automatically. The audit surface that catches a self-prepared return is open — and the auditor is the base state, not FMCSA, not PHMSA, not the broker.
What the deadline board looks like in Mileafi
When the IFTA cert, the base state, and the last four quarters of odometer + fuel records are seeded, IFTA appears as a single line on the Mileafi deadline board. The next quarter lights up at T-30, T-14, and T-72 hours. At T-72 the audit-ready packet is ready for signature — Mileafi will mail the PDF on your behalf or hand it back for you to send.