Fuel and road tax reporting explained

Carriers that drive in several states, provinces or countries often owe fuel and road taxes per jurisdiction: tax on the fuel used there, or a tax per mile driven there. Working that out by hand means adding up every vehicle's distance per jurisdiction and every fuel purchase. Transportial does this for you from the GPS positions of your vehicles and your fuel transactions, and prepares the return for each period. You still file and pay the return with the tax authority yourself.

Three kinds of schemes

Every tax is a scheme with its own rules, rates, filing period and units. There are three kinds:

Kind	What it is
Fuel tax returns	One return to your base jurisdiction for all member jurisdictions, such as IFTA in the United States and Canada. The fuel you used in each jurisdiction is taxed at its rate, and you get credit for tax already paid on fuel bought there.
Distance taxes	A tax per distance driven in one jurisdiction, with a rate that depends on the weight and sometimes the axles, type or Euro class of the vehicle, such as the US weight-distance taxes, New Zealand's road user charges or the Swiss heavy vehicle charge.
Fuel tax refunds	A refund of part of the fuel excise per litre for professional road transport, such as the Belgian professional diesel refund or the French refund on road diesel. Temporary per-litre aids that some countries add are reported separately.

Available schemes

Fuel tax returns and US distance taxes

Key	Scheme	Applies to
ifta	IFTA fuel tax return: the 48 contiguous US states and 10 Canadian provinces	Qualified motor vehicles: 3 or more axles, or over 26,000 lb registered gross weight
us-or-wmt	Oregon Weight-Mile Tax	Declared weight over 26,000 lb
us-ny-hut	New York Highway Use Tax	Gross weight over 18,000 lb, or the unloaded weight thresholds
us-ky-kyu	Kentucky Weight Distance Tax (KYU)	Combined licensed weight of 60,000 lb or more
us-nm-wdt	New Mexico Weight Distance Tax	Declared gross weight over 26,000 lb
us-ct-huf	Connecticut Highway Use Fee	26,000 lb or more and FHWA vehicle class 8 to 13

These are filed per quarter and work in miles, US gallons and US dollars.

Fuel tax refunds

Key	Scheme	Period	Applies to
be-professional-diesel	Remboursement du droit d'accise spécial sur le gasoil professionnel / Teruggave bijzondere accijns op professionele diesel	Quarter	From 7.5 t, categories N2, N3, M2, M3
fr-ticpe-gazole-routier	Remboursement partiel de l'accise sur les produits énergétiques (ex-TICPE) sur le gazole - transport routier de marchandises	Quarter	From 7.5 t, categories N2, N3
es-gasoleo-profesional	Devolución parcial del Impuesto sobre Hidrocarburos por gasóleo profesional	Month	From 7.5 t, N2, N3, M2, M3; at most 50,000 litres per vehicle per year
it-gasolio-commerciale	Rimborso accisa sul gasolio commerciale (autotrasporto)	Quarter	From 7.5 t, N2, N3, M2, M3, Euro V or higher; at most 1 litre per km driven
hu-commercial-diesel	Kereskedelmi gázolaj jövedéki adó-visszaigénylés	Quarter	From 7.5 t, N2, N3, M2, M3
si-commercial-transport-diesel	Vračilo trošarine za komercialni prevoz (plinsko olje)	Month	From 7.5 t, N2, N3, M2, M3
ie-diesel-rebate-scheme	Diesel Rebate Scheme (DRS) - partial repayment of Mineral Oil Tax	Quarter	From 7.5 t, N2, N3, M2, M3; licensed operators only
pt-gasoleo-profissional	Gasóleo profissional - regime de reembolso parcial de impostos (ISP + adicionamento CO2)	Quarter	From 35 t, N3, M3; at most 40,000 litres per vehicle per year
hr-commercial-diesel	Povrat dijela plaćene trošarine na dizelsko gorivo za komercijalni prijevoz robe	Quarter	From 7.5 t, N2, N3
ro-diesel-excise-compensation	Schemă de ajutor de stat pentru compensarea creșterii prețului la motorină (HG 1094/2025)	Quarter	From 7.5 t, N2, N3, M2, M3; Romanian carriers only
au-fuel-tax-credit-heavy-vehicles	Fuel Tax Credits - heavy vehicles on public roads	Quarter	Over 4.5 t

Distance taxes outside the US

Key	Scheme	Period	Rate
nz-ruc	Road User Charges (RUC) - distance licences	Quarter	NZD per 1,000 km, by RUC vehicle type and weight
ch-lsva	Leistungsabhängige Schwerverkehrsabgabe (LSVA) / Redevance sur le trafic des poids lourds liée aux prestations (RPLP), Switzerland and Liechtenstein	Month	CHF per tonne-km, by Euro class
is-kilometragjald	Kílómetragjald á ökutæki (kilometre charge, all vehicles)	Month	ISK per km, by weight

Each scheme carries its own units: the schemes outside the US work in kilometres, litres and kilograms, in euros or the local currency (HUF, RON, AUD, NZD, CHF, ISK). A distance tax charges per kilometre, per tonne-kilometre (distance × charged weight in tonnes) or per 1,000 km. Your administrator chooses which schemes are enabled; see Set up fuel and road tax reporting.

Rates, eligibility and related aids

• Rate status: each return shows Final rates, Preliminary rates or Rates missing. Rates are preliminary when the official rate for (part of) the period is not published yet or the research behind it is not verified. Rates are missing when there is no rate at all, for example a refund calculated with a formula from an excise rate that is not known yet.
• Eligibility: refunds only count fuel of eligible vehicles, by registered weight, UNECE vehicle category and sometimes the Euro class. Vehicles that do not qualify, or whose data is missing, are listed with the reason.
• Caps: some refunds have a maximum, such as litres per vehicle per year or litres per km driven. Fuel above the cap is shown as litres above cap and is not refunded.
• Related aids: temporary per-litre aids that a country pays on top of the refund are reported on their own lines, with their own status, and added to the total.

How distance per jurisdiction is measured

• Transportial follows each vehicle's GPS positions in time order and draws a straight line between each two positions. A line that crosses a border is split at the border, to within a few metres.
• A position that would mean an impossible speed is skipped as a GPS error, unless the next position confirms it.
• A jump between two positions that is longer than the GPS gap setting still counts, along the straight line, but is reported as a GPS gap with a warning, so you can check it.
• A position outside every jurisdiction, for example on water, counts for the neighbouring jurisdiction.
• Jurisdictions are states, provinces and regions where boundary data exists, and otherwise the country. This works worldwide.

Distance is calculated per vehicle per day, the first time a report asks for that day, and then kept. Today, and the most recent days as set in the settings, are always calculated again and never kept, so GPS positions that arrive late still count. Days follow the time zone of your platform.

Jurisdiction codes

Jurisdictions are named with ISO codes: US-TX for Texas, CA-ON for Ontario, or a country code such as MX where a country has no regions. The same codes are used for your base jurisdiction, vehicles and fuel transactions. See Generate tax rules from tax schemes for more about region codes.

Get started

1. Have the fuelTaxReporting feature switched on for your platform, and give the people who prepare the returns the read:fuelTax permission in their role.
2. Enable your schemes and enter your base jurisdiction in the settings. See Set up fuel and road tax reporting.
3. Fill in the fuel and road tax data of your vehicles, such as weight and vehicle category, and check that fuel transactions have a jurisdiction.
4. Open Fuel taxes in the side menu and check the return of the last period. See File a quarterly fuel or road tax return.