File a quarterly fuel or road tax return

The Fuel & road taxes page prepares the return of every enabled scheme for any period. It has three tabs: Returns, Miles per jurisdiction and Rates.

Open a return

1. Open the side menu (☰, top right) and choose Fuel taxes.
2. On the Returns tab, choose the Scheme. Schemes are grouped as Fuel tax returns, Distance taxes and Fuel tax refunds.
3. Choose the Year and the Quarter (or the Month for a monthly scheme).
4. For a fuel tax return, choose the Fuel type.
5. Read the return and its warnings (see below).

The heading shows the period, the filing due date and the state of the rates: Final rates, Preliminary rates or Rates missing. When no scheme is enabled yet, the page says so and links to the settings.

Read a fuel tax return

At the top you see Total miles, Total gallons, Fleet MPG and the result: Net due, or Net credit when you paid more tax at the pump than you owe. The calculation follows the IFTA rules:

1. Fleet MPG = all miles of your qualified vehicles ÷ all gallons they bought.
2. Per jurisdiction, Taxable gallons = its Taxable miles ÷ fleet MPG.
3. Net taxable gallons = taxable gallons − Tax-paid gallons bought there.
4. Tax due = taxable gallons × the Tax rate; the Credit = tax-paid gallons × the rate. A Surcharge due (for example in Kentucky and Virginia) is charged on all taxable gallons, without credit.
5. Net = tax due + surcharge due − credit.

Per jurisdiction lists the member jurisdictions. Miles in places outside the scheme, such as Alaska or Mexico, are listed separately under Miles outside the scheme: they count in the total miles and fleet MPG, but are not a line on the return. Per vehicle shows each vehicle with Qualified (and why: set on vehicle, by axles, by registered weight or by maximum weight), Miles, Gallons, MPG and GPS gap miles.

Read a distance tax return

A distance tax return lists each vehicle that drove in the jurisdiction with its Weight (the charged weight), Distance, the rate and the Tax. Depending on the scheme you also see Axles, Method (the weight band and rate table used), Vehicle type (New Zealand), Euro class and Tonne-km (Switzerland). The rate column follows the scheme: per mile or km, Rate per tonne-km or Rate per 1,000 km. Under the table you see the legal basis, the date the rates took effect, the confidence of the research and the Rate source.

Read a fuel tax refund

At the top you see Refundable litres, Total refund and, when they apply, Related aids, Refund + aids and Litres above cap.

• Per jurisdiction: the eligible litres bought in each jurisdiction, the Refundable rate on the purchase date and the Refund.
• Related temporary aids: each aid with its jurisdiction, litres, rate, amount and status.
• Per vehicle: whether the vehicle is Eligible, its litres, the litres Above cap, the GPS distance where a cap per km applies, the refund and aid, and in Notes why a vehicle is not eligible or which data is missing.

Check the warnings

Read the warnings before you file. The most common ones:

Warning about	What to do
Distance across GPS gaps	Check the vehicle's trips in that period. The distance is counted along a straight line.
A vehicle bought fuel but has no GPS positions	Its distance is missing. Check its board computer or tracking.
Whether a vehicle qualifies is unknown	Fill in its axles or registered weight in Fuel & road taxes on the vehicle.
Fuel transactions without a vehicle, without a member jurisdiction, or with a unit that cannot be converted	Correct the transactions. Until then they are left out, or no credit is taken for them.
No rate for a jurisdiction, or preliminary rates	Wait for the final rates or add a rate override in the settings.
Registered weight or axles missing	The maximum weight or the lowest axle count is used. Fill in the vehicle data.
Rates for part of the period, or an excise rate, are missing	The refund is incomplete. Check the official rates and add a rate override.
A vehicle is not eligible, or its eligibility is unknown	Fill in its registered weight, Vehicle category (UNECE) or emission standard.
A refund cap is reached	Fuel above the cap is not refunded.
Vehicle type, emission class or trailer weight missing	Fill in the RUC vehicle type (New Zealand), the Emission standard or the Gross weight of the usual trailer on the vehicle.
The period has not ended yet	The return covers the days so far.

Export and file

1. Open the return of the scheme and period.
2. Click Export to Excel. The file holds the lines, the vehicles, the warnings and your licence number.
3. Transfer the figures to the return in the portal of your base jurisdiction or tax authority, and file it before the due date.

IFTA returns are due on the last day of the month after the quarter: 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January; a due date on a weekend moves to the next working day. New York, Kentucky, New Mexico and Connecticut use the same days; quarterly Oregon filers file by the end of the second month after the quarter. Some schemes have no filing date in Transportial: the Spanish and Portuguese refunds are settled from fuel-card data, Australian fuel tax credits are claimed on your business activity statement, and New Zealand's road user charges, the Swiss heavy vehicle charge and the Icelandic kilometre charge are prepaid or invoiced by the authority. The page shows the due date of the period you opened when there is one.

Send the return automatically

A message automation can email the return as an Excel file every quarter, for example to your accountant.

1. Create a Scheduled message automation with a Cron expression, for example 0 7 5 1,4,7,10 * (07:00 on the 5th day after each quarter). See Message automations.
2. Under Report attachments, click Add report and choose Road and fuel tax return (fuelTaxReturn) in Select a report.
3. Choose the Scheme. Left empty, the first enabled scheme is used.
4. Leave Year and Period empty to always send the last completed period, and optionally enter a Fuel type.
5. Enter a File name and save the automation.

See Write the message and add attachments for the rest of the message.

Miles per jurisdiction and rates

• Miles per jurisdiction: choose From and To and a vehicle, or All vehicles, to see the distance per Country and State / province / region with the GPS gap distance. Use it to check a vehicle or to answer an audit. A range can be up to 400 days.
• Rates: choose a scheme and period to see the rate of every jurisdiction, including your rate overrides.