Mississippi IFTA Filing Walkthrough (Quarterly)

Mississippi keeps the two big interstate credentials under one roof. The Department of Revenue issues apportioned IRP plates and runs IFTA from the same IRP/IFTA office in Clinton, and both go through the same online portal, the Taxpayer Access Point (TAP). Decals cost nothing. The license renews every December. The one trap sits in the quarterly return itself: the Department changed the spreadsheet format, and the old one fails on upload. The sourced deadlines, contacts and records rules render on the Mississippi IFTA page; this walkthrough puts them in the order you meet them.

Step 1: confirm Mississippi is your base jurisdiction

The Department's IRP Instruction Manual (Mississippi Department of Revenue, Form 77-761, accessed 2026-09-28) sets out four conditions, and all four have to hold at once:

• Your qualified motor vehicles are registered in Mississippi.
• You have an established place of business in Mississippi.
• You keep operational control and records for the vehicles in Mississippi, or can make them available there.
• The vehicles actually travel on Mississippi highways.

A qualified motor vehicle carries persons or property and has two axles with a gross vehicle weight over 26,000 pounds, or three or more axles regardless of weight, or runs in a combination that tops 26,000 pounds.

A carrier that qualifies and chooses not to join IFTA must buy fuel permits to travel through member jurisdictions under each jurisdiction's own rules. Here is the Mississippi wrinkle: neither MDOT's permit fee sheet nor the Department of Revenue's pages publish a Mississippi fuel trip permit. MDOT sells a 72-hour trip permit, and that one stands in for apportioned plates, not for IFTA. So if you plan to run Mississippi without an IFTA license, call the IRP/IFTA office at (601) 923-7142 before the trip. The Mississippi trip and fuel permits page records what is published and what is not.

Step 2: register for IFTA on TAP

Registration happens on the Taxpayer Access Point, per the Department's Interstate Commercial Vehicles page (Mississippi Department of Revenue, accessed 2026-09-28). A paper application is available on request from the Department's IFTA Section, but TAP is where the account lives.

The speed is the point in Mississippi's favor. IRP and IFTA applications filed and paid on TAP can receive temporary credentials the same day. You can also request temporary IFTA decals on TAP while the permanent ones are on the way.

Two phone numbers, two jobs, per the Department's district office notice (Mississippi Department of Revenue, Petroleum Tax Division, accessed 2026-09-28):

• (601) 923-7142 for help filing an IRP or IFTA application on TAP.
• (601) 923-7700 for help setting up the TAP account itself.

If the TAP account is not set up yet, start with the second number.

Step 3: or walk in at one of five offices

Mississippi offers IRP and IFTA services in person at the Department's Clinton office and at district offices in Hernando, Hattiesburg, Meridian and Biloxi. A carrier on the Coast does not have to make the trip to Clinton, and neither does one near Memphis. The notice carries one warning worth planning around: late arrivals may not receive credentials until the next business day. Show up early if you need to roll that afternoon.

Step 4: know what it costs to get in

Decals are provided at no cost, per the Department's IFTA License Renewal Return instructions (Mississippi Department of Revenue, accessed 2026-09-28).

The license fee is an honest gap. No Department of Revenue page read for this guide states one. IFTA, Inc.'s license fee survey lists no Mississippi charge for the license, the application, replacement or renewal, but that survey reports 2011 figures, so we do not present it as today's fee. Our Mississippi IFTA page records the license fee as unconfirmed and the decal fee as free, each with its source. If a fee matters to your startup budget, ask the IRP/IFTA office when you register.

Step 5: file the quarter on TAP, in the current template format

Each quarter you file one report with Mississippi covering operations in every jurisdiction your vehicles traveled. TAP gives you two ways to do it, per the Interstate Commercial Vehicles page:

1. Enter the data by hand in TAP.
2. Upload the Department's Excel template on TAP.

Three rules come with the second option, and the Department states all three plainly. The older spreadsheet will not work on TAP; you must use the new format. You complete the filing online after the upload. And you do not email your Excel template to the Department. A carrier or bookkeeper still working from a saved copy of the old file should download the current template before the quarter closes, not on the due date.

The due dates come from the IFTA Articles of Agreement, R960 Due Date (IFTA Articles of Agreement, International Fuel Tax Association, Inc., effective January 2026, accessed 2026-09-28): the return and full payment are due the last day of the month after the quarter closes.

When that day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the next business day is the due date. The Department of Revenue pages read for this guide do not restate the dates, so the agreement is the source.

Mississippi's own diesel line on the return is $0.2400provisionalIFTA Fuel Tax Rate Matrix, 4th Quarter 2026 (provisional) (International Fuel Tax Association, Inc. (IFTA, Inc.))Verified Sep 27, 2026 per gallon this quarter. Every other jurisdiction you ran in has its own line at its own current figure, so read them off the IFTA rates by state table and check the arithmetic in the IFTA calculator before you enter or upload. The national how to file IFTA guide walks the mechanics that are the same in every base jurisdiction.

Step 6: what a late return costs, and what we could not confirm

The IFTA Articles of Agreement, R1220, let a base jurisdiction assess $50.00 or 10 percent of delinquent taxes, whichever is greater, for failing to file, filing late, or underpaying. R1230 requires interest on delinquent taxes.

That is the agreement's baseline. The Department of Revenue pages read for this guide do not restate Mississippi's own penalty or interest figures, so we do not print a Mississippi-specific number here. Treat the R1220 figure as the floor the agreement allows, file on time, and ask the IRP/IFTA office if you are already late.

Step 7: keep four years of records, or lose the credit

IFTA records must be kept for four years, per the Department's IRP and IFTA Record Keeping Requirements (Mississippi Department of Revenue, accessed 2026-09-28). The consequence for thin records is spelled out. The Department disallows credit for tax-paid fuel and/or reduces fuel mileage to 4.00 miles per gallon or by 20 percent. On any truck that does better than that, either cut hands the Department a larger taxable gallon figure than you burned.

Mileage records can be electronic (GPS or vehicle tracking) or manual (driver logs or trip sheets). Each trip record shows:

• the date and time of the trip,
• origin and destination,
• beginning and ending odometer, hubodometer or ECM readings,
• the route,
• total trip distance and distance by jurisdiction,
• the vehicle identification or unit number.

Electronic records must also keep the original location data and the distance between readings.

Fuel receipts show the purchase date, the seller's name and address, the quantity and type of fuel, the price per gallon or liter or the total price, the vehicle, and the purchaser. Bulk withdrawals also show the storage location.

Step 8: renew in December on the TAP renewal return

The license renews every year during the December reporting period, through the IFTA License Renewal Return on TAP. The return asks for two counts, and they are kept apart: the number of company-owned trucks that need a decal, and separately, the number of operated or leased trucks that are not company owned. Get the split right, since that is how the free decals get ordered.

Who to call, and one number that disagrees

The dedicated IFTA & IRP Contact Information page (Mississippi Department of Revenue, accessed 2026-09-28) lists:

• Phone (601) 923-7142, fax (601) 923-7133
• Email IRP_IFTA@dor.ms.gov
• 500 Clinton Center Drive, Clinton, MS 39056 (mail: P.O. Box 1140, Jackson, MS 39215)

The Department's General Frequently Asked Questions page instead points IFTA questions to the Petroleum Bureau at (601) 923-7150. The dedicated contact page and the district office notice both give (601) 923-7142, so start there.

Because the same office runs apportioned plates, the Mississippi IRP registration page is the natural next stop. Fleets register on a staggered calendar there, and new vehicles must be added within seven working days of purchase, which means a new truck touches both credentials in the same week.

FAQ

Who runs IFTA in Mississippi, and where do you file?

The Mississippi Department of Revenue, through its Taxpayer Access Point (TAP). The same Department and the same IRP/IFTA office issue apportioned IRP plates, so one account portal and one phone number, (601) 923-7142, cover both credentials.

Does Mississippi charge for IFTA decals or the license?

Decals are provided at no cost; you enter how many trucks need them on the annual renewal return. No Department of Revenue page read for this guide states a license fee, so we record none rather than guess at one.

Can I email my Mississippi IFTA spreadsheet to the Department?

No. The Department says not to email the Excel template. You either type the return into TAP or upload the Department's current Excel template there, and the older spreadsheet format no longer works on TAP.

When does a Mississippi IFTA license renew?

Every year, during the December reporting period, through the IFTA License Renewal Return on TAP.