A tax Tulsa County started charging liquor retailers 33 years ago is no more.
The $900 tax applied to businesses in unincorporated areas, which was only nine bars. Under Oklahoma's new liquor laws, convenience stores choosing to sell beer and wine would have paid occupational tax, too. Chief Deputy County Commissioner John Fothergill said many of those are locally owned, mom-and-pop stores.
"A $900 hit could probably be the difference between a profit margin and not. We decided that since we’re not providing them a great service out of this that we could go ahead and decrease taxes and remove that tax for everybody," Fothergill said.
The occupational tax is assessed annually.
"So, those bars that have already paid it for this year, they’ll go ahead and ride out the year and next year, starting Jan. 1, we won’t collect it from them anymore," Fothergill said.
Cities and counties may charge the tax to liquor retailers solely within their boundaries.
