When are my trucking taxes and registrations due?

Chapter 01

What do I have to file each year, and why do I keep missing it?

A small interstate trucking company with heavy trucks usually has six regular filings. UCR is paid once a year. IFTA fuel tax returns are due every quarter, and the IFTA license renews every year. IRP plates renew once a year, and Form 2290 is filed once a year. The MCS-150 update comes every two years (the federal rule). Weight distance taxes add returns in the States that charge them. Each filing goes to a different office on a different date. Owners rarely miss one because it is hard. They miss it because no one was assigned responsibility.

Here is how that looks in real life. Say you run four trucks out of Pennsylvania, hauling general freight up and down the East Coast. Your trucks cross into New York most weeks. You drive one truck yourself. An office manager does the paperwork three days a week, and a local shop does your repairs.

On Monday, October 5, 2026, a letter comes from Pennsylvania’s tax office. Your IFTA return for April to June was due July 31. It was never filed. Your office manager thought you had filed it from the road. You thought she had. Nobody had.

What does that cost? Under the IFTA rules, your State may charge a penalty of $50 or 10 percent of the tax you owe, whichever is more. Interest runs on top. It is set at two percentage points above the rate the IRS charges on unpaid tax. The State that charges it is your base State. That is the State where your company is based and where you file IFTA. Here, it is Pennsylvania.

The bigger cost comes later. Your base State renews your IFTA license and decals for the new year only when every return is filed. Every tax, penalty and interest charge must be paid too (the IFTA rules). So one forgotten return in July can leave your trucks without their 2027 decals in January. Without the decals, you may have to buy a trip permit, receive a ticket, or both.

A missing reminder will not save you either. Your base State is supposed to send you the return forms at least 30 days before each due date. But not getting the form “does not relieve the licensee from the obligation to submit a tax return”, the rules say (the IFTA rules). The licensee is you. In plain words, the date is yours to remember, reminder or not.

This is how most owners meet their deadlines: one penalty at a time. Each filing belongs to a different office. FMCSA keeps your USDOT record. The UCR Plan and the States collect UCR. Your base State runs IFTA and IRP. The IRS collects Form 2290. And each weight distance State runs its own tax. None of them sees the whole picture. Only you can.

So you pay the penalty and file the late return. Then you set aside one evening to build the whole year on one page. You start with the dates themselves.

Chapter 02

When is each filing due?

UCR for the next year opens October 1 and must be paid before January 1 (the UCR Plan). IFTA returns are due April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31, and the IFTA license renews for each calendar year (the IFTA rules). Weight distance returns follow each State’s own schedule. IRP plates renew on your base State’s date. Form 2290 is due August 31 for trucks used in July (the IRS instructions). The MCS-150 update is due every two years, in a month set by your USDOT number.

Start with October, when registration opens for the coming year. UCR stands for Unified Carrier Registration. It is a yearly fee that interstate carriers pay, based on how many trucks they run. Registration for 2027 opens October 1, 2026. The UCR Plan says each carrier must register and “pay its UCR fee before January 1 of the registration year” (the UCR Plan). So paying on January 2 is late. The fee is still due after that date, and a State may then take enforcement action against you. That is the UCR registration due date in one line: before January 1.

The fee changed this fall. FMCSA raised UCR fees for 2027 and later years in a rule published September 1, 2026. For three to five trucks, the fee goes from $138 for 2026 to $167 for 2027. One or two trucks go from $46 to $55. Six to 20 trucks go from $276 to $333 (the UCR Plan’s fee table). With four trucks, you pay $167. Put UCR on your list for October, not for the last week of December. Our guide to UCR registration explains who must register and which trucks count.

Next come the fuel tax returns. IFTA, the International Fuel Tax Agreement, lets you file one fuel tax return with your base State for all the States you drive in. The year is split into four quarters. Each return is due on the last day of the month after its quarter ends (the IFTA rules). So the return for January to March is due April 30. April to June is due July 31. July to September is due October 31. October to December is due January 31 of the next year. Those are the IFTA due dates, and they do not move from year to year. Our guide to the IFTA quarterly return shows how to fill one in.

One small rule changes the day. If the last day falls on a weekend or a legal holiday, the return is due the next business day (the IFTA rules). October 31, 2026 is a Saturday, so your return for July to September is due Monday, November 2. January 31, 2027 is a Sunday, so the next one is due Monday, February 1. Do not plan around those extra days. Plan to file a week early.

You also file in a quarter when a truck sat still. The rules say returns are required “even if no operations were conducted” (the IFTA rules). A carrier whose trucks drive under 5,000 miles a year outside the base State may ask to file once a year instead. Your trucks run to New York every week, so that is not you.

The IFTA license itself runs for one calendar year and ends December 31. Each truck carries a copy of the license and shows two decals, one on each side of the cab (the IFTA rules). You renew both every year with your base State. As you saw, the renewal comes only when every return and payment is in. The new decals may go on your trucks up to two months before January 1. The old ones stay good through January and February, which is a grace period. So the renewal belongs on your list for November, not March. Our guide to the IFTA license and decals explains the renewal.

Then come the States that charge their own tax on heavy trucks, by weight and by miles, on top of IFTA. Our guide to weight distance taxes covers each of them. Your trucks run in New York, so you owe its highway use tax. A new filer files every quarter, on the same dates as IFTA: April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31 (New York’s filing rules). After a full year, New York may change that. If your tax for the year was over $12,000, you file monthly. If it was $1,200 or less, you file once a year. The State tells you when it changes. And like IFTA, a due date that falls on a weekend or a legal holiday moves to the next business day (New York’s return instructions).

Other States keep other schedules. Oregon’s standard return is monthly, due by the last day of the next month. Oregon wants it filed even when no tax is due (Oregon’s tax report page). So if your trucks start running west, your calendar grows.

Your plates come next. IRP, the International Registration Plan, lets one set of plates cover all the States you drive in. Most owners call them apportioned plates. You pay your base State, and the fee is split by the miles you drove in each State. When they renew depends on your base State. In Pennsylvania, “all apportioned registrations expire May 31” (PennDOT’s answers on apportioned plates).

The renewal fees are based on miles you drove in a fixed year that ended long before. Which year that is depends on your base State and when its plates renew, so check your own State’s rule. For Pennsylvania, PennDOT puts it simply: “The reporting period is always July 1 through June 30 of the previous year.” Its own example shows how that counts. Plates that start June 1, 2015 used the miles from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014. So your plates that start June 1, 2027 use your miles from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Those miles are already driven. The job is finding them, not counting new ones. Our guide to IRP registration explains the renewal and the fees.

Summer brings Form 2290. This is the federal tax on heavy trucks, paid to the IRS on each truck with a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more. The tax year runs from July 1 to June 30. For every truck on the road in July, the return is due August 31 (the IRS instructions). That is the Form 2290 due date most owners meet. The IRS also says this deadline is not tied to your plate renewal date. The full year’s tax on an 80,000 pound truck is $550, as the IRS’s own example shows. Our guide to Form 2290 covers who owes it and how to file.

When you file, the IRS stamps and returns a page called Schedule 1, which lists your trucks. Keep it safe. States generally want that stamped page before they will register a truck (the IRS instructions).

Last comes the MCS-150. This form keeps your USDOT record up to date with FMCSA. FMCSA calls it the biennial update, which means every two years. The month depends on the last digit of your USDOT number. A 1 means January, a 2 means February, and so on, with 0 meaning October. The digit before it decides the year. If it is odd, you file in odd years. If it is even, you file in even years (the federal rule).

Say your USDOT number ends in 36. The 6 means June, and the 3 is odd. So your next update is due by June 30, 2027. The rule says a carrier that skips it faces penalties and deactivation of its USDOT number. For now, FMCSA has paused that enforcement while it moves to a new registration system, but the date still stands (FMCSA’s registration page). Our guide to the MCS-150 explains the pause and walks through the update itself.

That is the tax and registration side. But when you look at the list, a few more dates belong on the same page.

Chapter 03

How do I put it all on one calendar, and who does what?

Write every date for the next year on one page, in month order. Next to each date, write the one person who files it, and a backup. Set an internal deadline a week before the filing is due, with a reminder four weeks before to start gathering records. Add the deadlines that apply to each truck and each driver, like yearly inspections and medical cards. Keep the page where everyone can see it, and check it on the first working day of every month.

Some dates are not taxes, but they sit on the same calendar because missing them can also interrupt your work. Each truck and trailer needs a periodic inspection at least once every 12 months, with proof on the vehicle (the inspection rule). Each driver needs a medical certificate at least every 24 months. Some drivers need one every 12 months (the medical exam rule).

The driver files have their own dates too. You must pull each driver’s driving record and review it at least once every 12 months. You also keep a note of who reviewed it and when (the driving record rule). And you must run a Clearinghouse check on each driver at least once a year. The Clearinghouse is FMCSA’s database of drug and alcohol violations (the Clearinghouse rule). Your insurance renews on the date on your policy. These dates differ for each truck and each driver, so write each one down by name.

Now give every date an owner. In your company, it could look like this. Your office manager takes the IFTA and New York returns, because she already keeps the fuel receipts. You keep UCR, the MCS-150 and the IRP renewal, because they are about the company itself. Your shop does the yearly inspections and sends you the reports. The driver files stay with you. Each date also gets a backup, so a sick day or a vacation does not turn into a penalty.

Here is your year at a glance, starting in October 2026. The dates come from the sources in the last section. The people responsible are those in the example company; your assignments may differ.

Two habits make the table work. First, the date in the table is the last day, not the target. Your office manager’s own deadline for the October return is October 26, a week before the real one. Second, every row has a name. When the letter came in October, the problem was not that nobody knew IFTA was due. Everybody knew. Nobody owned it.

Put the calendar where it gets seen. A shared phone calendar with two alerts for each date works. So does a paper list on the office wall. What matters is that one person reads it on the first working day of every month. That person is you.

Chapter 04

What do I need to gather before each deadline?

Most filings are quick once the numbers are ready. The slow part is gathering them. For IFTA and weight distance returns, you need each truck’s miles in each State, and your fuel receipts. For the IRP renewal, you need a full year of miles by State. For Form 2290, you need each truck’s VIN and taxable weight, and your company’s tax number. For UCR and the MCS-150, you need your USDOT number, your truck count and your login. Start four weeks before each date.

IFTA comes first, because it comes four times a year. The rules say you must keep records that back up every number on your return (the IFTA rules). That means miles by State for each truck, and a receipt for every fuel purchase. You get credit for fuel tax you already paid at the pump only if you keep a receipt that shows the purchase and the tax. You do not send the receipts with the return, but you must be able to show them if the State asks.

So in the first week after each quarter ends, your office manager pulls a report from your ELD or GPS system. It shows the miles each truck drove in each State. Then she matches it against the fuel receipts. A fuel stop in Ohio on a day the report puts the truck in New York is a mistake. Fix it now, before the return goes in, not years later in an audit.

New York needs the same miles, but with one difference. Its tax is based on the miles each truck drives on New York public highways. Miles on the New York State Thruway, where you already paid a toll, are left out. New York also wants daily records of the miles each truck drives in the State (New York’s guide to the tax). So keep the Thruway toll records with the fuel receipts.

For the IRP renewal in May, you need the miles for the whole reporting year, by State, for each truck. Pennsylvania collects those miles at renewal time. It also tells carriers to keep a record of every trip (PennDOT’s answers on apportioned plates). That record shows the truck, the date, where the trip started and ended, the odometer readings and the route. Here is the good news. Your IFTA returns for July 2025 to June 2026 cover exactly those months. If those returns were built from clean records, you already have the miles by State to start from. PennDOT also takes the stamped 2290 Schedule 1 for the current tax year as proof the federal tax is paid.

For Form 2290 in August, you need the VIN and the taxable gross weight of each truck. You also need your company’s employer identification number, or EIN. The IRS says plainly that “you can’t use your social security number” on this form (the IRS instructions). If you file online, your stamped Schedule 1 can come back within minutes. Paper takes longer, and you may need that page for your plates.

For UCR and the MCS-150, the numbers are simple: your USDOT number and how many trucks you run. The harder part is the login. FMCSA moved its registration system to a new website called Motus in May 2026. The biennial update is now filed there (FMCSA’s guide to the Motus account page). Log in once in the spring, well before June, to be sure your access works.

One more habit saves hours. Make a list of every login: your State’s IFTA site, the company you use to file Form 2290 online, the UCR site and Motus. Keep it where your backup person can reach it. Keep one folder, on paper or on the computer, with the stamped Schedule 1, the IFTA license, the cab cards and each truck’s inspection report. When a date comes, everything is in one place.

Chapter 05

What if I add a truck in the middle of the year?

Adding a truck in the middle of the year creates new deadlines. It needs its own Form 2290, due by the end of the month after its first month on the road (the IRS instructions). It must be added to your IRP account and needs IFTA decals. To run in New York, it needs a New York decal first. It also needs a yearly inspection on record. Most of this must be done before the truck’s first load, not by the IRS date.

Say that business grows, and in March 2027 you buy a fifth truck. It is new, from a dealer, and you drive it home on March 10.

Form 2290 comes first. A truck first used in March 2027 needs a Form 2290 by April 30, 2027 (the IRS instructions). The tax covers only the months left in the tax year, from March to June. But you may need to file sooner to register the truck. States generally want the stamped Schedule 1 before they will register a truck. So you file the 2290 the week you buy the truck, not at the end of April. And remember July. The new tax year starts July 1, and by August 31 you file Form 2290 again, for all five trucks.

Next, the plates. In Pennsylvania, you add a truck to your apportioned account with a form called MV-552A, along with the truck’s title (PennDOT’s answers on apportioned plates). All Pennsylvania apportioned plates expire May 31. So the truck you plate in March must renew again less than three months later, with the rest of the fleet. Put that on the calendar now, or the new truck will be the one that gets missed.

Then the fuel tax decals. Each truck carries two IFTA decals and a copy of the license (the IFTA rules). Ask your base State for a set for the new truck. Your State may also give you a temporary decal permit, good for 30 days, while the decals are on their way. And if a new truck replaces an old one, do not just move the decals across. The rules say decals move between trucks only with your base State’s permission.

New York has its own step. Before a truck drives on New York roads, it needs a New York certificate of registration and a decal for the highway use tax. The fee is $1.50 per truck (New York’s registration rules). Your trucks cross into New York every week, so do this before the first load.

The new truck also needs its yearly inspection on record. You may not use a truck unless it passed a periodic inspection within the last 12 months, with proof on the truck (the inspection rule). Get proof of an inspection from the last 12 months, or have your shop do one before the first load. Then add the truck’s inspection date to your calendar for next year. Call your insurer too, and add the truck to your policy before it hauls anything.

UCR does not change this year. You already paid for 2027. When you register for 2028 next fall, the new truck may count. Five trucks still fall in the bracket for three to five trucks. Under the fees set for 2027 and later years, that bracket pays $167 (the September 2026 rule). A sixth truck would move you up to the next bracket. Your MCS-150 update is due in June anyway. It is a good moment to check that your USDOT record is up to date with the new truck.

Selling a truck works the other way. The IRS lets you claim a credit for the 2290 tax on a truck that was sold, destroyed or stolen (the IRS instructions). In Pennsylvania, you take it off your apportioned account with the same MV-552A form. Return its plates if you no longer use them. Our guide to adding or selling a truck goes through each step in more detail.

Chapter 06

Is a calendar worth the trouble, and what has changed?

Yes. A calendar takes one evening to build and a few minutes a month to keep. One missed IFTA return costs at least $50 plus interest, and it can hold up the decals for your whole fleet (the IFTA rules). Two things changed in 2026. UCR fees go up for 2027. And FMCSA moved its registration system to Motus in May, and it has paused enforcement of the MCS-150 update for now (FMCSA’s registration page). The rule itself has not changed.

Go back to your October letter. The penalty was small next to what it put at risk. Once the grace period ends in February, a truck without its 2027 decals can face a trip permit or a ticket. That goes for all four of yours. The calendar you built in one evening stops that from happening again. It also spreads the work. Nobody has to remember everything, because the dates are written down, and each person only has to read their own rows.

Now, what changed this year, and which advice is out of date? First, UCR. FMCSA raised UCR fees by about 20 percent on average for 2027 and later years. The rule takes effect October 1, 2026 (the September 2026 rule). The fees for 2026 had stayed at the 2025 level. So a page that still shows $46, $138 and $276 shows last year’s fees. Those were right for 2026 only.

Second, the MCS-150. FMCSA launched Motus, its new USDOT registration system, in May 2026. To ease the move, FMCSA has “temporarily suspended enforcement of biennial updates and the inactivation of USDOT Numbers”, its registration page says. That covers carriers that have not completed their update (FMCSA’s registration page). We could not open FMCSA’s full notice, so we do not know when the pause ends. The rule itself still says every 24 months (the federal rule). So file on your normal date anyway. A pause in enforcement does not change the rule.

Third, Form 2290 has a new set of instructions each July. The current ones, dated July 2026, cover the tax year from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 (the IRS instructions). And if your trucks run in Oregon, note one more date. Oregon changes how its mileage tax is figured from July 1, 2027. It will ask carriers to confirm their truck weights in the spring of 2027. Its due dates stay the same (Oregon’s notice on the change).

Some things we could not check. The IFTA website did not open for us on September 22, 2026. So we quote a saved copy of the IFTA Articles of Agreement, the edition that took effect in January 2026. We did not check the IFTA Procedures Manual. We checked IRP renewal dates only for Pennsylvania. Your base State may renew in another month, so ask it. And we could not read FMCSA’s full notice about the MCS-150 pause. Before any date on your own calendar, check it against the official source for your State.

If you would rather hand the whole calendar to someone, we can do it. We keep the dates, gather the numbers and prepare the filings every month: here is what it costs.