IFTA Audits and Recordkeeping

An IFTA audit is not a rare event by design. The Agreement obliges each jurisdiction to audit a set proportion of its accounts every year, which means audits are routine rather than punitive, and the carriers who suffer in them are almost always the ones whose recordkeeping was never audit-shaped in the first place.

The requirements below come from the Procedures Manual and Audit Manual as re-issued effective January 2026. Two of them — the GPS data standard and the inadequate-records assessment — changed recently enough that most published guidance is out of date.

How long you keep records

Four years following the date the IFTA return for those operations was due or was filed, whichever is later, plus any period covered by waivers or jeopardy assessments. The "whichever is later" matters: a return filed late starts its own four-year clock from the filing date, not from the original due date.

Two related provisions are worth knowing. If your records are not kept in your base jurisdiction and the auditors travel to where they are, the base jurisdiction may require you to pay its reasonable per diem and travel expenses. And requesting a refund extends the retention period for the records relating to that refund until the request is granted or denied.

Distance records: the required elements

For records produced by any means other than a vehicle-tracking system, the Procedures Manual lists what must be present for the base jurisdiction to accept them as adequate: the beginning and ending dates of the trip; the origin and destination; the route of travel; the beginning and ending reading from the odometer, hubodometer or engine control module; the total distance of the trip; the distance travelled in each jurisdiction during the trip; and the vehicle identification or unit number.

A terminology note for anyone searching: the 2026 Procedures Manual does not use the term IVMR, or Individual Vehicle Mileage Record, anywhere. It says "distance records." IVMR remains useful industry shorthand but is not the official term.

The GPS standard most carriers fail

This is the highest-value thing on this page, because it is stricter than nearly every published summary of it and carriers routinely discover the gap at audit.

Where distance records come from a vehicle tracking system using latitudes and longitudes, a record must be created and maintained at minimum every 10 minutes while the vehicle’s engine is on. Each reading must contain the date and time; the latitude and longitude to a minimum of four decimal places; the odometer reading from the engine control module at each reading — with a beginning and ending dashboard or hub odometer accepted only where no ECM odometer is available; and the vehicle identification or unit number.

Then the requirement that catches people: the data must be accessible in an electronic spreadsheet format such as XLS, XLSX, CSV or delimited text. Formats from a vehicle tracking system that provide a static image, such as PDF, JPEG, PNG or Word, are explicitly not acceptable.

The practical test: ask your telematics provider today whether it can export raw pings at 10-minute engine-on intervals, with four-decimal coordinates and ECM odometer at each reading, in CSV. A tidy PDF trip report — the thing most portals produce by default — does not satisfy the Procedures Manual.

Fuel records and tax-paid credit

Your fuel records must be adequate for an auditor to verify the total fuel placed into your qualified vehicles, by fuel type. Two disqualifying rules come first: the base jurisdiction shall not accept, for tax-paid credit, any fuel record that has been altered, shows erasures, or is illegible unless you can demonstrate it is valid — and shall not allow credit for fuel placed into anything other than a qualified motor vehicle.

For a retail purchase to support tax-paid credit, the receipt, invoice or transaction listing must show the date of purchase; the name and address of the seller, where a properly identified vendor code is acceptable; the quantity of fuel; the type of fuel; the price per volume or the total price; identification of the qualified vehicle it went into; and the name of the purchaser — with the lessor’s or lessee’s name acceptable on leased vehicles, provided a legal connection to the licensee can be made.

Bulk storage carries extra obligations: delivery receipts, quarterly inventory reconciliations for each tank, tank capacities, and withdrawal records showing location, date, quantity, fuel type and the vehicle or equipment fuelled. Credit for bulk withdrawals is only allowed where you can show tax was paid to the jurisdiction where the bulk storage sits.

Audits, and what happens when records fall short

Jurisdictions must audit an average of 3 percent of their IFTA accounts per year, with sampling requirements that deliberately reach across fleet sizes — at least 25 percent of audits drawn from the largest-distance quartile of accounts and at least 15 percent from the smallest. Being a small carrier is not protection.

If records are ruled inadequate for the fleet as a whole, or if you produce no records after a written demand, the jurisdiction imposes an additional assessment. Here is what changed: it may reduce your reported fleet MPG to 4.00, or reduce your reported average fuel consumption factor by 20 percent, or — in jurisdictions that tax by distance — increase jurisdictional distance by 20 percent. The 20 percent option took effect January 1, 2026.

The direction of that change depends on your numbers. A fleet reporting 6.50 MPG is hurt less by a 20 percent cut to 5.20 than by a drop to 4.00. A fleet reporting 4.50 MPG is hurt more by the 20 percent cut to 3.60. So the widely repeated claim that bad records automatically mean a 4 MPG assessment is no longer the complete rule.

One newer and more forgiving contact is worth knowing about: a Records Review. It focuses on evaluating your distance and fuel reporting system rather than reconciling returns, may be limited to less than a full reporting period, may be conducted before your first renewal, and — critically — cannot result in a tax assessment. Its stated purpose is to mitigate recordkeeping problems before they become audit findings.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to keep IFTA records?⌄

Four years following the date the return was due or was filed, whichever is later, plus any period covered by waivers or jeopardy assessments. A late-filed return restarts the clock from its filing date, and a pending refund request extends retention for the related records.

Does a PDF report from my GPS provider satisfy IFTA?⌄

No. The Procedures Manual states that formats providing a static image — PDF, JPEG, PNG or Word — are not acceptable. The data must be available in a spreadsheet format such as XLS, XLSX, CSV or delimited text.

How often does GPS have to record a position?⌄

At minimum every 10 minutes while the engine is on, with each reading carrying the date and time, latitude and longitude to at least four decimal places, the ECM odometer reading, and the vehicle identification or unit number.

Is the IFTA audit penalty really 4 MPG?⌄

Not always, and not since January 1, 2026. Where records are inadequate the jurisdiction may reduce reported fleet MPG to 4.00, reduce your reported fuel consumption factor by 20 percent, or increase jurisdictional distance by 20 percent in distance-rate jurisdictions. Which one hurts more depends on what you reported.

What are my chances of being audited?⌄

Higher than most carriers assume. Jurisdictions are required to audit an average of 3 percent of accounts each year, and sampling rules require a share of those audits to come from both the largest and smallest accounts by distance.

Related guides

Official sources

Agency rules, fees and contacts can change — confirm current requirements with the agency before acting. This guide is general information for truckers, not tax or legal advice.

IFTA Audits and Recordkeeping: What You Must Keep