The state of Oklahoma is poised — on Thursday — to eliminate its 4.5% tax on groceries. That doesn’t mean grocery sales will be totally tax-free.
City and county taxes, like the city of Tulsa’s 3.65% sales tax, will still be charged. They’re important because, according to the city’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget , they account for more than one-third of revenue taken in each year by the city and help to pay for vital services such as police protection and road maintenance.
Tulsa County collects a 0.367% sales tax. But consumers undoubtedly will see savings.
If a family typically spends $1,000 a month on groceries, it should save about $540 in the coming year. The state tax won’t be eliminated on everything that gets sold in a grocery store. For example, it will still be charged on purchases of things like medicines or supplements found on a pharmacy aisle.
It’ll still be charged on sales of tobacco products, six-packs of beer or bottles of wine. The tax will still be applied, too, for purchases of things like ready-to-eat deli chicken or “grab-and-go” pasta salad. A cake made in a grocery store bakery will still be subject to the state tax, but a cake made by an outside vendor, boxed and shipped ready to be sold from a frozen foods section, will not.
Emily Haxton, the press liaison at the Oklahoma Tax Commission, said the state’s sale tax will be eliminated across the broad categories of “food and food ingredients” while it will still be applied to “.