IFTA Taxes and Which Turn Pikes and Toll Roads are exempt

NY reimburses for the miles on the toll ways.

 

I think you would still report them, but list them under Toll Roads.

http://www.ooida.com/EducationTools/Info/IFTA-info.asp

TOTAL TAXABLE MILES - Enter the total taxable miles in each jurisdiction minus fuel trip permit miles. Fuel trip permit miles are not considered taxable miles in any jurisdiction. Toll miles and off-highway miles are not taxable mile in some jurisdictions. Contact each jurisdiction for information on these exceptions. If you forget to write down taxable miles, total miles will be used as taxable miles. NOTE: Total taxable miles cannot be greater than total miles

https://www.iftaboss.com/ifta-questions/exemptions/

 

I agree, report all miles, but broken down via Toll/Non-Toll for taxes.

 

Sort of. (please forgive, those who know IFTA inside-and-out, for the following. I hope that it may help many others whose eyeballs bleed when it comes to what IFTA is.)

Even though IFTA was created to be a "uniform and simple" way for the states and provinces to collect an additional heavy commercial vehicle fuel taxation revenue stream, it is far from uniform or simple. Yes, the basic concept generally is not to hard to understand. But it is the exemptions that are complex and painful to keep straight for sure.

Here is IFTA in the most simple sense: You drive a vehicle over 26,000 pounds on my state roads and my state wants to collect some tax from you for the additional wear. (there are other terms, but I am simplifying remember)

It is calculated by charging you extra at the pump (except in Oregon) and then you must document all of this "driving and buying of fuel" each quarter to your home state which issued your IFTA sticker. The problem is that YOU don't always BUY FUEL IN MY STATE. So you drove on my roads, but you didn't pay my tax at my pump! In other states you bought LOTS of fuel but didn't drive a lot of your miles there. You overpaid me at the pump. Based on your truck MPG, I can figure out how much you owe my state per mile that you DID drive here. And I may owe you a refund, or you may owe me more. Your state will then pay or collect from the others as needed.

And to make it more complicated, some states want an additional "heavy use" tax on top of IFTA. (New York, New Mexico, Oregon, Kentucky.)

To figure out your MPG and to document to all of these states and provinces, you would (and do) have to document every mile driven and every gallon bought that went into the propulsion tank to drive those miles. (even the exempt miles) Once you know the MPG, and the miles, and the IFTA rate of that state - you know whether you owe them more than you already paid at the pump, or whether they owe you. You may know your MPG through other methods, but THEY don't. Note that if you have more than one truck under your authority, the IFTA MPG is calculated as a "fleet average" when paying.

So, to the original post statement - turnpikes and toll roads are usually NOT exempt from IFTA, which is what he stated correctly. BUT, there is an "exception" for the Mass Turnpike. And there are also several states/provinces/territories that are exempt from IFTA. You still need to document those miles, but you put them down as "Non-IFTA" miles (or kilometers if you are Canadian based.) In the case mentioned with Massachusetts, you need to file their form ST-10 annually if you do list their turnpike miles as Non-IFTA miles during the quarterly IFTA filings. (you can read the Mass instruction here if you like)

There are other exemptions. They list them as either "Distance, Vehicle, or Fuel" type of exemptions. The table is large and complicated here (https://www.iftach.org/exempt/view/general2017n.php) And they are different for each jurisdiction. If you suffer from insomnia, click through all of them to see which you may qualify for. Most drivers do not qualify because they are uncommon and the government counts on that. The most common one I see pertains to oil rig delivery drivers who tend to do hundreds or thousands of miles on non-government roads in a quarter.

So, with all that said, you do want to sometimes know what tolls, turnpikes, thruways you drove because there are state HUT taxes (like the New York Thruway HUT miles exemption, not for IFTA) and Mass Turnpike exemption (IFTA.) Plus you don't want to forget those additional (on top of IFTA) taxing states like NY, NM, KY forms to file and pay. But for IFTA, they don't break out "toll verses non-toll" normally with the exception of the Mass Turnpike. Rather, they look at it a "Taxable or Non-IFTA" miles via the exceptions link posted here.

 

In MA if don't claim the toll miles on IFTA then MUST report USE tax to that state. If you ever get an IFTA audit they can check to see if this was paid and if not then will be paid on IFTA.