IFTA Records to Keep

Who This Applies To

• Motor carriers building or updating a record-retention system to support quarterly IFTA filings and possible audits.
• Owner-operators who need to know which documents to keep, in what format, and for how long.
• Fleet managers reviewing whether GPS exports, ELD logs, or fleet card data can substitute for paper trip records and receipts.
• Carriers who received an IFTA audit notice and need to locate records for periods already filed.

What To Verify

• The retention period required by the base jurisdiction. The IFTA Agreement requires four years from the return due date, but some jurisdictions extend this — check the base jurisdiction's published rules.
• Whether the base jurisdiction accepts electronic records — GPS exports, ELD data, fleet card downloads — as primary documentation, and what detail level they require.
• That trip records capture what auditors actually look for: vehicle unit, date, origin, destination, route or GPS track, jurisdiction-level miles, and beginning and ending odometer.
• That fuel receipts tie to a specific vehicle, purchase date, location, fuel type, and gallon amount — not just a total dollar charge on a card statement.

Step-by-Step Overview

1. Set up a records system organized by vehicle and quarter from the start, not after the first audit notice. Retroactive organization is time-consuming and often incomplete.
2. Collect trip records weekly. Drivers who submit logs daily or at each state line crossing produce records that hold up better in audits than summaries assembled at quarter end.
3. Match fuel purchases to vehicles and jurisdictions as they happen. A fleet card that purchases fuel in multiple states on the same day needs receipt-level detail by location and vehicle.
4. At quarter end, reconcile the jurisdiction mileage summary against trip-level records before filing. If the totals don't match the individual trips, find the discrepancy before filing — not during an audit.
5. Retain filed returns, supporting summaries, and the underlying trip and fuel records together, organized by quarter. Auditors typically ask for all three levels: return, summary, and source records.

Common Mistakes

• Keeping quarterly summaries but not the trip-level records that built them. The summary shows what was reported; the trip records prove it. Auditors ask for both.
• Relying on a credit card statement as a fuel receipt. A statement shows that a purchase happened; it typically doesn't show gallons, fuel type, or the exact purchase location at the state level.
• Letting drivers submit mileage totals without route detail. A record that shows 450 miles on a given day without identifying which states they were driven in doesn't meet IFTA's jurisdiction-level requirement.
• Disposing of records before the retention window closes. Four years from the return due date means a Q1 2023 return (due April 30, 2023) has records subject to audit until at least April 30, 2027.
• Switching record systems mid-year without exporting and retaining historical data. A new GPS platform or ELD provider doesn't carry over records from the old one automatically.