IFTA Audit

Definition

An IFTA audit is the periodic review every base jurisdiction must perform on a portion of its IFTA licensees under the IFTA Audit Manual. Auditors verify reported miles per jurisdiction against original source documents (driver trip sheets, ELD logs, dispatch records, fuel receipts) for a sample period - typically four consecutive quarters. Findings can result in additional tax assessments, penalty, and interest; major discrepancies can trigger a multi-year look-back. The 4% audit-coverage requirement under the Articles of Agreement means most carriers will face an IFTA audit eventually. Carriers should retain trip and fuel records for at least four years from the filing date even though IFTA itself only requires four quarters of working-paper preservation.