Historical sources of funding for county govern-ment H istorical sources of funding for county government services are restricted and in some instances particularly in rural counties may not keep up with inflation. The use tax is a new option for county government. The purpose of this publication is to answer the fundamental questions about a county use tax. Use tax is essentially the same as sales tax.
Sales tax is collected on retail purchases from Oklahoma merchants.
Use tax is collected on mail and phone order and Internet purchases from merchants who have no physical presence in Oklahoma. Use tax applies to the same items as sales tax. Vendor location is the key difference. In 1998, the state Legislature adopted a law allowing counties to begin collecting the use tax, effective January 1, 1999. Many city governments were already collecting use tax.