What IFTA mileage and fuel records do I need to keep?

Chapter 01

What records does IFTA expect me to keep?

IFTA expects records that prove every number on your return: the miles each truck ran in each State, and the fuel bought for it. IFTA is an agreement among the States and Canadian provinces, not a federal rule, so these requirements come from its own rule books. The main one is the IFTA Procedures Manual. It lists what trip records and GPS data must contain. You keep it all for four years. And in an audit, “the burden of proof is on the licensee” (the Procedures Manual). The licensee is you.

Here is how that looks in real life. Say you run three trucks. The third quarter of 2026 ended on Wednesday, September 30. The return is due on the last day of October. But October 31 is a Saturday, so the due date moves to Monday, November 2 (the IFTA Articles of Agreement). How the return itself works is in our guide to filing the IFTA return. On Thursday, October 1, you sit down with the quarter’s papers.

This is what you have. Each truck has an ELD, and the ELD company sends you a PDF report of miles by State. You have the fuel card statement. There is a shoebox of paper receipts. And the ELD in truck 3 lost its connection for a week in August.

Start with the miles. For a trip record kept by hand, or any way other than GPS, the manual lists seven things. The first two are the dates the trip began and ended, and where it started and ended. Next are the route driven and the odometer readings at the start and end. A hub odometer, or the reading from the engine computer (the ECM), also works. Then the total miles of the trip, and the miles in each State. Last comes the truck’s VIN or unit number (the Procedures Manual). This is what people mean by IFTA mileage reporting requirements.

If your miles come from GPS, a different list applies. Since January 1, 2024, the system must make a record at least every 10 minutes while the engine is on. Each record shows the date and time, and the location to at least four decimal places. It also shows the odometer from the engine computer and the truck’s VIN or unit number. If the truck has no engine odometer, a start and end odometer reading for each trip will do. Then comes the format rule: “This data must be accessible in an electronic spreadsheet format such as XLS, XLSX, CSV or delimited text file.” A PDF, a JPEG, a PNG or a Word file is “not acceptable” (the Procedures Manual). In plain words, the auditor must be able to open your GPS data as a spreadsheet. Your PDF report of miles by State is a summary. It is not the GPS record.

Your ELD’s logbook is not that record either. Under the ELD rules, the device logs the truck’s position when something happens, such as a change of duty status. While the truck is moving, the device records its position once an hour. And it rounds the position to two decimal places, which is about a mile (the ELD technical rules). That meets the logbook rules, not the IFTA GPS rule. So you ask the ELD company for the GPS data itself, for each truck, for the whole quarter. You want readings every 10 minutes or more often, coordinates to four decimal places, the engine odometer and the truck number. And you want it as a CSV or Excel file. If the company cannot give you that, keep a trip record for every trip instead.

The manual adds one test for any record. It must let the State check your miles and fuel. If a record comes in a form the State cannot audit, “they have not been made available as required” (the Procedures Manual). A record the auditor cannot use counts as no record. Your records must also be available for audit in your base State, the State that issued your IFTA license (the Articles of Agreement). How that State is chosen is in our guide to the IFTA license and decals.

How long do you keep it all? Four years after the return “was due or was filed, whichever is later” (the Procedures Manual). Say you file this return a week early, on Monday, October 26. The later date is the due date, November 2. So this quarter’s papers stay until at least November 2, 2030.

One more boundary. Kentucky, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Connecticut charge their own taxes on trucks by distance. Those taxes are separate from IFTA, with their own returns and records, and this page does not cover them.

Chapter 02

How do I make my fuel receipts count?

A fuel receipt counts when it shows seven things. The first five are the date, the seller’s name and address, the gallons, the type of fuel, and the price per gallon or the total. It must also show which truck got the fuel, and the buyer’s name (the Procedures Manual). The rules accept a receipt or invoice from the seller, a card receipt, a fuel card statement or an electronic copy of the receipt. Without one of those, you lose the credit for the fuel tax you paid at the pump.

Why does that credit matter? Fuel tax is already in the pump price. On your return, you get credit for the tax you paid on each gallon, in the State where you bought it (the Articles of Agreement). The receipt is your proof. Without it, you pay that tax a second time with your return.

Now sort through the receipts in the shoebox. Your fuel card statement lists each purchase. It shows the date, the truck stop, the gallons, the price and the unit number the driver typed at the pump. The rules accept “a transaction listing generated by a third party”, and a fuel card statement is one (the Procedures Manual). So for card purchases, the statement is your main fuel record. Check each line against the seven items. A lost paper receipt from a card purchase is then no problem, as long as its statement line shows all seven items.

Two receipts give you trouble. The first is a paper receipt from a card purchase with no truck number on it. Do not write the number on it now. Writing on a receipt weeks later can make it look altered. The rules let the State refuse an altered receipt unless you can show it is valid. Find the same purchase on the card statement instead, where the unit number is. Keep the two together.

The second is a receipt that is gone. On Saturday, August 22, the driver of truck 2 paid cash for 60 gallons at a small station in Missouri. He lost the receipt. First, call the station. The rules accept a copy from the seller, and they accept an electronic copy of the original receipt. If the station cannot help, nothing replaces it. In August 2026, IFTA’s members approved a board ruling that says so plainly. There is no credit for tax paid “unless the licensee can provide one of the required records” (the Procedures Manual). So you lose the credit on those 60 gallons.

You still count the 60 gallons in truck 2’s total fuel. Every gallon that goes into the tank must be reported (the Articles of Agreement). And the audit rules say a missing receipt, by itself, is no reason to cut your total fuel (the IFTA Audit Manual).

From now on, two habits prevent this. Drivers pay with the fuel card, not cash. And they write the truck number on each receipt at the pump, then take a clear photo of it. The rules accept “an electronic or digital record” of the original receipt, so the photo is a record too (the Procedures Manual). Ask your base State whether it has rules on how you store those copies. If you keep your own fuel tank at the yard, the manual adds more. You need records of every delivery into the tank and every fill from it, and a measurement of the fuel remaining in each tank every quarter.

Chapter 03

How do I fill a gap and check that it all adds up?

Fill a gap by rebuilding each trip from the papers you still have: logs, bills of lading, fuel receipts and odometer readings. The rules accept trip records made by any means, as long as they contain all seven items (the Procedures Manual). Then check the quarter truck by truck. The miles by State must add up to the odometer miles, and the fuel must match your fuel records. Do this before you file, not when an auditor calls.

Your records are missing a week for truck 3. On Monday, August 10, its ELD lost its connection. The driver noted it and told you the same day. The logbook rules then required him to keep paper logs until the ELD worked again. They gave you 8 days to fix it (the rule on ELD breakdowns). The shop found a loose cable and fixed it on Monday, August 17. So the GPS data has a hole from August 10 to 16.

The paper logs are your best help. A paper log must name the city and State at every change of duty status (the rule on paper logs). So you can see where the truck started, stopped and fueled each day. The bills of lading show the pickup and delivery locations for each load. The fuel receipts from that week give places and dates. And the engine computer kept counting miles the whole time. The last GPS reading before the gap shows the engine odometer at 412,380 miles. The first one after it shows 414,905. So truck 3 ran 2,525 miles that week.

Now write a trip record for each load that week, with the seven items. Follow the route from the paper logs. Use a mileage map to split each trip’s miles by State. Make sure the trips add up to the 2,525 miles on the odometer. Mark each sheet “rebuilt on October 2 from paper logs, bills of lading and fuel receipts”, and keep those papers with it. An auditor can then see where every number came from.

With the gap filled, check the whole quarter. Do it for each truck, in this order:

1. Take the engine odometer at the start and at the end of the quarter. The difference is the truck’s total miles.
2. Add up its miles by State. The sum must equal that total. If it falls short, find the missing trips.
3. List every fuel purchase for the truck: the card lines and the cash receipts. Take out any purchase that shows up twice.
4. Check each purchase against the route. On that date, the truck must have been in that town.
5. Divide the truck’s miles by its gallons. Compare that number with its past quarters. A big jump is a reason to check for missing fuel or mileage records.

Auditors run the same kind of check. They are told to note “unusual trends or variances” in your returns (the Audit Manual).

Watch the ends of the quarter too. A trip from September 29 to October 2 belongs partly to each quarter. The rules allow a cutoff date a little off the calendar, if you always use the same one. But the cutoff dates for miles and fuel must be the same (the Procedures Manual). Use the same cutoff date for both mileage and fuel records.

Last, make one summary for each truck. For each month, it shows miles and gallons, in total and by State. The manual says a summary like this “may be necessary” for an audit, and you must hand it over when asked (the Procedures Manual). An IFTA reporting spreadsheet works well here: a tab for each truck, a row for each month, a column for each State. When the summary matches your return, you have the record an auditor starts from.

Chapter 04

What happens if records are missing, and how do I get ready for an audit?

If an auditor finds the records for your fleet inadequate, the State must add tax. It cuts the miles per gallon on your return to 4.00, or cuts it by 20% (the Procedures Manual). Fewer miles per gallon means more fuel on paper, and more tax. A State’s tax assessment based on missing records is presumed correct until you prove it wrong. So keep each quarter’s records in one folder, in the order an auditor will review them.

See what that means in numbers. Say truck 1 ran 30,000 miles last quarter at 6.0 miles per gallon. That is 5,000 gallons. At 4.00 miles per gallon, the same miles become 7,500 gallons. You pay tax on 2,500 gallons the truck never burned. A 20% cut gives 4.8 miles per gallon and 6,250 gallons. That is still 1,250 gallons too many.

A gap in the records for one truck is handled a little differently. When records for some trucks are “substantially impaired or missing”, the auditor may estimate their miles and fuel (the Audit Manual). The estimate can come from your other trucks with similar runs, from industry averages or from fuel sellers’ records. If none of that works, the auditor can make the same cuts for that truck. So if you had left that week missing from truck 3’s records, an auditor would fill it in without you. Your rebuilt trip records are the better answer.

The State cannot do this without warning. Before it bills you for missing records, it must send a written request and give you 30 days to produce them (the Articles of Agreement). After that, its bill is “presumed to be correct”. To change it, you must show it is wrong “by a fair preponderance of evidence”. In plain words, the proof is then on you, and your records are the only proof you have.

Now think like the auditor. The audit rules ask the State to give you at least 30 days’ notice before an audit (the Audit Manual). The auditor then compares your summaries with your returns. The auditor checks a sample of your records and may apply what the sample shows to the whole period.

So for each quarter, keep one folder, on paper or on a computer. Put the filed return and the proof of filing on top. Then, for each truck, add the monthly summary, the GPS files or trip records, and the fuel list with its statements and receipts. Add a short note for each problem you fixed: the rebuilt week with its papers, and the cash receipt that could not be replaced. If you have a yard tank, its records go in too. Say your records sit outside your base State, and its auditors travel to see them. Then the State can make you pay their travel costs (the Procedures Manual).

Do not hold the return back to chase one receipt. Filing late, or paying less than you owe, can cost $50 or 10% of the unpaid tax, whichever is more. Interest comes on top (the Articles of Agreement). What happens in a full audit, and what to do when the letter comes, is in our guide to the IFTA audit.

Some older advice is now out of date. The GPS rule, with its readings every 10 minutes and four decimal places, took effect on January 1, 2024 (the Procedures Manual). A guide that says any GPS printout will do is wrong. And in August 2026, IFTA’s members confirmed that no receipt means no credit, even when an auditor is estimating. The current manuals are dated August 26, 2026. The IFTA website would not load for our tools, so we read them through a reader service that fetched them from it. Each State can apply them in its own way, so check the details with your base State.

If you want your IFTA records checked every quarter, along with the rest of your compliance work, here is what we offer.