NEWS & REPORTS

Proposed IFTA Amendments Posted

May 24, 2014 | Industry News

This year there are four proposals to amend the International Fuel Tax Agreement. Three of them are probably of limited interest to motor carriers, but the other, which has to do with IFTA’s rules for audit and record keeping, should be of great interest to the industry.

That amendment is the third (FTPBP #3-2014 in IFTA’s code for these things). It’s sponsored by IFTA’s Audit Committee, and represents several years of work by representatives of IFTA’s member jurisdictions and of the trucking industry, including this writer. This amendment also represents a more or less complete rewrite and rearrangement of IFTA’s provisions in these two areas.

One of the goals of the project was to make IFTA’s rules in this regard as close as possible to those of the International Registration Plan following that organization’s similar effort, which went into effect last year. Like IRP’s, then, IFTA’s new rules on record keeping are somewhat more flexible for carriers, allowing them to maintain their records in any format that allows an audit to be done, and specifically accommodating records created in part through the use of GPS or some similar vehicle-tracking technology.

Provided a carrier’s records are of the quantity and quality necessary for an audit to be done, the jurisdiction doing the audit may not impose a general penalty for bad records – although of course audit adjustments may still be made that may increase the carrier’s tax liability. In the main, the proposed IFTA rules for auditing distance are to be the same as those in effect on the IRP side. Few changes are proposed with respect to the rules for fuel records, however, as these were on the whole found to be satisfactory as they stand currently.

In addition to these changes, and incidental revisions of IFTA language to make it clearer, the project largely rewrote the IFTA Audit Manual, which provides the states and provinces guidance on audit programs and their auditors with procedures for auditing specific situations. These changes, it is hoped, will make IFTA audits on the whole somewhat more uniform, and prevent some questionable practices by a few states.

This is an amendment industry should strongly support.

The other three ballots are as follows:
FTPBP #1 would change the cycle for IFTA program compliance (peer) reviews of the states and provinces from five years to four. If anything, this is a positive change, since it may help to ensure that instances of noncompliance with IFTA’s rules on the part of a state or province will have less time to become significant.

FTPBP #2, like No. 1, is sponsored by IFTA’s Program Compliance Review Committee. No. 2 would make a state’s noncompliance with (a) IFTA requirements to provide information to carriers or (b) the requirement for IFTA base-state audits even-handed for all jurisdictions grounds to take the offending state to IFTA Dispute Resolution Committee for potential disciplinary measures. Since we believe that all issues of noncompliance ought to be subject to such measures, we’re for this one too.

FTPBP #4, sponsored by IFTA’s Audit Committee, would make a definitional change that affects slightly the scope of an IFTA audit. From industry’s point of view, this seems wholly a technical change.

All these ballots are posted on IFTA’s website, at www.iftach.org, under IFTA Ballot Proposals, and are open for public comment through June 12. After that, they’ll be discussed at IFTA’s annual business meeting in August, and, if they survive that, will go out for a second comment period before being voted on this fall by the IFTA membership. ATA expects to file comments on the ballots during the first and possibly also the second period.

About the Author

NEWS & REPORTS

16 Ways Artificial Intelligence is Impacting Trucking

Road Legends Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a game-changer in various sectors, and the trucking industry is no exception. From optimizing routes and fuel efficiency to enhancing safety and improving fleet management, AI is revolutionizing the way trucks...

Trucking’s AI outlook: What solutions await in 2025

The artificial intelligence boom is poised to expand into 2025, bringing with it exciting new solutions for fleet operations. Improved large language models will be able to tackle significantly more complicated tasks, boosting safety and efficiency.   Jeremy Wolf...

How federal agencies will regulate trucking this year

Jeremy Wolfe Donald Trump resumed control of the nation’s federal agencies this week. With a change in administration, what will agency management look like for 2025? This is the first part of a three-part series on 2025's regulatory outlook. You can read part two...

House looks to address Highway Trust Fund, lack of truck parking

Mark Schremmer Addressing Highway Trust Fund shortfalls and a lack of truck parking were among the topics discussed at the House Highways and Transit subcommittee’s first hearing of the 119th Congress. The subcommittee held the hearing “America Builds: Highways to...

FMCSA Approves ATA Plan to Reduce Time to Certify Inspectors

Plan Calls for Use of TMC 'Recommended Practices' as Training Guide Eric Miller A technician works on a Peterbilt truck engine. An individual now can become qualified as an inspector in as little as four months by following TMC’S Recommended Practices. (Peterbilt...

CATEGORIES