Several changes of importance to motor carriers became effective at the beginning of July this year in both the International Registration Plan and the International Fuel Tax Agreement, as the result of amendments adopted by those organizations a couple of years ago.
In IRP, new rules for audit and record keeping are now in effect. In general, these allow somewhat more flexibility to carriers in the way they maintain IRP records. In particular, states are required to accept for audit those records produced by vehicle-tracking systems, such as those relying on GPS, provided those records contain what an auditor needs to do an audit.
The changes to the Plan also provide a new penalty provision for carriers whose records are inauditable or entirely missing: a 20 percent increase in IRP fees for the fleet.
IFTA's change is in the rate of interest states charge for underpayments, including those discovered on audit. Previously, IFTA's interest rate had been a punitive 12 percent a year. Now the rate is 2 percent higher than the rate the Internal Revenue Service charges on underpayments. So, as of July 1, this year, IFTA's rate is only 5 percent rather than 12. There is more information on this on IFTA's website - www.iftach.org, under Interest Rates.
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