IFTA Tax Rates in Arkansas (2026)

Key numbers at a glance

Arkansas is a crossroads state — I-40 from Memphis to Oklahoma City, I-30 to Dallas, US-67 running the timber lanes to Little Rock — and it is surrounded by six neighbors, every one of them with a lower diesel rate. That makes Arkansas less a fueling destination than a fueling decision: burn the miles, but time the fill-ups. The figures below are from the official IFTA Inc. fourth quarter 2026 tax rate matrix and the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration — as of Q4 2026 — always confirm the current quarter's official IFTA matrix before filing, since this quarter's matrix is not final until December 4, 2026. The full national picture is on the IFTA rates by state hub.

IFTA tax rates in Arkansas

Arkansas's current rates date to October 1, 2023, when the gasoline excise rose to 24.7 cents and diesel to 28.5 cents per the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration and IFTA Inc.'s matrix footnote:

The structure is simple — one rate per fuel, no surcharge schedule, no two-line split like Indiana's surcharge or Virginia's base-plus-additional reporting. What defines Arkansas for IFTA purposes is geography: at 28.5 cents, its diesel rate stands above Texas (20.0), Oklahoma (19.0), Louisiana (20.0), Mississippi (24.0), Tennessee (27.0) and Missouri (29.5 is the only neighbor higher, by a penny). If your lanes cross the state line, the tax arbitrage is built into the map.

How Arkansas IFTA affects your filings

Each quarter, your Arkansas line is Arkansas miles divided by fleet MPG, times $0.285 for diesel. Take a Little Rock to Memphis to Jackson run at 6.5 MPG:

Arkansas is 48% of the miles and 51% of the tax because its rate is the highest on the trip. Now flip the fueling. Buy all 89.2 gallons in Arkansas and you prepaid $25.43 against $24.10 owed — essentially a wash. Buy them in Mississippi and you prepaid $21.42 against $24.10 owed, leaving about $2.68 due plus the deferred bill timing. That small gap is the whole game in the mid-South: rates are close, so the win comes from consistency, not heroics. Run your own trip mixes in the IFTA calculator, and file each quarter with that quarter's rates — using last quarter's matrix is a standard audit flag that Arkansas auditors check line by line.

Keep the receipts matched to ELD per-state miles. The most common Arkansas discrepancy is the Memphis metro cluster, where a fueling stop off I-40 in West Memphis lands in Arkansas but the driver logs the trip as Tennessee miles — that single error moves tax between two states' lines and is exactly what a desk audit looks for.

Fueling strategy around Arkansas: price minus tax

Shop by net price: pump price minus the state tax, then check the rates ahead. Heading west on I-40, Oklahoma's 19.0 cents is nearly a dime below Arkansas — fill in Fort Smith's cheaper neighbor or hold to Oklahoma City when the range allows. Running I-30 toward Dallas, Texas at 20.0 cents beats Arkansas by 8.5 cents a gallon, roughly $8.50 per hundred gallons. South on US-165 to Louisiana, 20.0 cents again beats 28.5. Only Missouri, at 29.5 cents, makes Arkansas look good — so on Kansas City lanes, fuel before the state line. Annualized, moving a hundred gallons a week from Arkansas pumps to Texas pumps is about $440 a year in tax timing, real money for a one-truck operation. Because weekly diesel price swings dwarf these gaps, tie the strategy to your freight rates with the fuel surcharge guide — the surcharge should fund the fuel, and the fueling plan keeps the IFTA line from eating the difference.