IFTA Illinois Guide: Licence, Decals and Quarterly Filing

IFTA in Illinois is administered by the Illinois Department of Revenue for Illinois-based carriers, and you file everything through MyTax Illinois. The requirement covers qualified motor vehicles (two axles and over 26,000 pounds gross or registered gross weight, three or more axles regardless of weight, or a combination over 26,000 pounds) that operate in Illinois and at least one other IFTA jurisdiction. Chicago is the largest rail and freight interchange in North America, so an Illinois carrier often runs both metro drayage and long interstate hauls, and the interstate work makes it an IFTA carrier.

Illinois charges no licence fee. Decals cost $3.75 per qualified vehicle, ordered for each truck that will operate across jurisdictions.

Yes. Every Illinois IFTA transaction goes through MyTax Illinois: the initial application, annual renewal, decal orders, quarterly return and payment. There is no paper option, so a new carrier starts by opening a MyTax Illinois account and adding the IFTA program. Returns are due April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31, or the next business day, and a quarter with no interjurisdictional travel still needs a zero return.

The licence renews every year, and you handle the renewal and the new year's decal order in the same portal. If you let the licence lapse without cancelling it, the quarterly obligation keeps accruing against an open account.

Many Illinois carriers run two fleets: local trucks that never leave the Chicago area and don't need IFTA, and interstate trucks that do. The return should cover only the qualified vehicles that operate interjurisdictionally. In the telematics platform, run the distance-by-jurisdiction report on the interstate vehicle group so local miles don't inflate it. Wisconsin and Indiana are a short run from Chicago, and one day's dispatch can put a truck in three jurisdictions. The GPS record keeps those miles in the right column.

Under the IFTA Procedures Manual, you keep the records supporting each return for four years from the due date or filing date, whichever is later. An Illinois Department of Revenue audit asks for trip-level distance and fuel purchases by jurisdiction, tied to a vehicle and a date. A GPS distance report backed by trip logs, kept with the fuel-card export, answers it.

The essentials for an Illinois-based carrier in one place. Fees are those in effect at the time of writing, so confirm them in MyTax Illinois before each renewal.