Are groceries taxed in Oklahoma?

Since August 29, 2024, food and food ingredients are exempt from the 4.5% state sales tax under House Bill 1955. City and county sales taxes still apply, so groceries in Oklahoma City carry the 4.125% city tax. Prepared food, alcohol, dietary supplements and items like rotisserie chicken and sandwiches made in the store still pay the state rate.

How much does an Oklahoma sales tax permit cost?

The fee is $20 for the first location and $10 for each additional place of business, under 68 O.S. § 1364. You apply on OkTAP. The first permit is probationary for six months and renews automatically for 30 more months if you file and pay on time; after that, permits renew every three years with the fee.

What is the sales tax in Oklahoma City?

In the Oklahoma County part of Oklahoma City, it's 8.625%: 4.5% state plus 4.125% city, with no Oklahoma County sales tax. The city also reaches into other counties, so the total is 8.75% in the Cleveland County part, 8.975% in the Canadian County part and 10.12% in the Pottawatomie County part.

When are Oklahoma sales tax returns due?

Most permit holders file monthly, with the return and payment due by the 20th of the month after the sales. If you collect $50 or less a month, Oklahoma law allows semi-annual filing, with reports due July 20 and January 20. A due date on a weekend or holiday moves to the next business day.

Do out-of-state sellers have to collect Oklahoma sales tax?

Yes, once they make more than $100,000 of taxable Oklahoma sales in the current or previous calendar year, under 68 O.S. § 1392. They then register and collect state and local tax based on the delivery address. Marketplace facilitators with at least $10,000 of Oklahoma sales must elect to collect tax or follow notice and reporting rules.

Sales tax

Oklahoma Sales Tax in 2026: The 4.5% Rate, Grocery Exemption, City Rates and the $20 Permit

Oklahoma sales tax 2026: the 4.5% state rate, 0% state tax on groceries since August 2024, Oklahoma City and Tulsa totals, the $20 permit, filing dates and examples.

Edited by Sumeet YadavFounder & editor, MSMETOOLS · fact-checked against official sources

Updated October 2026 Verified against official sources 9 October 2026 15 min read

Oklahoma sales tax — MSMETOOLS guide cover

Contents (11)

1. How the Oklahoma rate is built
2. Oklahoma City and Tulsa rates
3. The grocery exemption since August 2024
4. What else is taxable
5. Worked examples in dollars
6. Getting an Oklahoma sales tax permit
7. Filing, paying and penalties
8. Remote sellers and marketplaces
9. Use tax for Oklahoma businesses
10. Common mistakes and how to fix them
11. What to do next

Oklahoma's state sales tax rate is one of the lower ones in the country, but its cities lean heavily on sales tax, so the total at the register is often close to 9%. Add the 2024 grocery exemption, which applies only to the state's share, and a permit system that starts every new business on probation, and there's plenty to get wrong. This guide is for shops, restaurants, food trucks, contractors and online sellers who need the 2026 rules: the 4.5% state rate, local rates in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, how groceries are taxed now, how to get and keep the $20 permit, and how to file. Rates and rules were checked with the Oklahoma Tax Commission in October 2026.

Quick answer

Oklahoma's state sales tax is 4.5%, and cities and counties add their own. The total is 8.625% in Oklahoma City (Oklahoma County part) and 8.517% in Tulsa (Tulsa County part). Since August 29, 2024, groceries carry a 0% state rate, but local taxes still apply.

A sales tax permit costs $20, plus $10 per extra location, on OkTAP
New permits are probationary for six months
Returns are due the 20th of the following month
Remote sellers collect after $100,000 of taxable Oklahoma sales
Prepared food, alcohol and supplements still pay the 4.5% state rate

How the Oklahoma rate is built

Oklahoma levies a 4.5% state sales tax on sales and rentals of tangible personal property and on a short list of services. Every transaction inside a city or county that also levies sales tax picks up those taxes too. The total is the state rate plus the city rate plus the county rate, and it varies from place to place. Cities use sales tax as their main source of general revenue, which is why city rates of 3% to 4% or more are common.

The rate follows the point of delivery. If a customer buys at your store, you charge the rate for your store's location. If you deliver or ship to the customer, you charge the rate where the customer receives the item. Each city and county has a four-digit code, called a COPO code, that you report on your return so the Tax Commission can send local tax to the right government.

Use tax mirrors sales tax. When goods are bought outside Oklahoma and brought in for use, storage or consumption, the buyer owes state use tax plus any city or county use tax where the goods are used. Retailers selling into Oklahoma from a place of business outside the state collect use tax from their customers.

Oklahoma City and Tulsa rates

Both big cities stretch across county lines, and the county rate changes the total. The Tax Commission's rate locator shows these combined rates for 2026:

City part	City rate	County rate	Total
Oklahoma City — Oklahoma County	4.125%	0%	8.625%
Oklahoma City — Cleveland County	4.125%	0.125%	8.75%
Oklahoma City — Canadian County	4.125%	0.35%	8.975%
Oklahoma City — Pottawatomie County	4.125%	1.495%	10.12%
Tulsa — Tulsa County	3.65%	0.367%	8.517%
Tulsa — Osage County	3.65%	1.25%	9.40%
Tulsa — Wagoner County	3.65%	1.55%	9.70%

Oklahoma County doesn't levy a county sales tax, so most of Oklahoma City, including downtown and Bricktown, comes in at 8.625%. Customers in the far west of the city, in Canadian County, or the southern edge, in Cleveland County, pay a little more. In Tulsa, most addresses are in Tulsa County at 8.517%, but the northwest corner sits in Osage County and parts of the east are in Wagoner County.

Rates change when cities and counties pass new taxes or let old ones expire, and the Tax Commission publishes new rates and effective dates in advance. Check the locator by address before you set up a register or quote a delivery, and again whenever the Commission posts changes.

Oklahoma City downtown skyline — Downtown Oklahoma City sits in Oklahoma County, which has no county sales tax, so the total is 8.625%.· Image: Serge Melki (CC BY 2.0)

The grocery exemption since August 2024

House Bill 1955, with Senate Bill 1283, took the state sales tax off food and food ingredients from August 29, 2024. The Tax Commission is careful to say it's a state exemption only. City and county sales taxes still apply to groceries, so a shopper in Oklahoma City still pays the 4.125% city tax on a cart of groceries.

Food and food ingredients means the things people think of as grocery items: food packaged by a manufacturer, fresh produce, meat and fish, baby food, flour, pasta, spices, frozen meals, chips, and even soft drinks in bottles or cans. Alcoholic beverages, dietary supplements and prepared food don't qualify and still pay the full 4.5% state rate. The Commission's examples of grocery items that stay taxable include beer, self-serve fountain drinks, rotisserie chicken, pet food, vitamins, toiletries, over-the-counter medicines and food made by the store, such as birthday cakes, sushi, sandwiches and deli salads.

Prepared food is food the seller heats, mixes or sells with utensils. There are exceptions that let some prepared food stay exempt from state tax: raw meat or fish that the customer must cook, food that is only cut or repackaged, food sold unheated by weight without utensils, items made by a third-party food manufacturer, and take-and-bake items that need cooking rather than reheating.

Restaurants and food trucks face a simpler but stricter rule. If more than 75% of your food sales are prepared food and you make utensils available, all your food sales are treated as prepared food and taxed at the state rate, including bottled water and bags of chips. The Commission's own example is a food truck selling a burger, chips and a bottle of water: all three are taxable.

State sales tax on food in Oklahoma (2026)

Item	State 4.5%?	Local tax?
Milk, bread, produce, meat	No	Yes
Canned soda and potato chips at a grocery store	No	Yes
Rotisserie chicken or store-made sandwich	Yes	Yes
Deli salad sold by weight, no utensils	No	Yes
Restaurant meal	Yes	Yes
Beer, vitamins, pet food	Yes	Yes
Chips and water from a food truck (over 75% prepared food)	Yes	Yes

Milk, bread, produce, meat

State 4.5%?: No
Local tax?: Yes

Canned soda and potato chips at a grocery store

State 4.5%?: No
Local tax?: Yes

Rotisserie chicken or store-made sandwich

State 4.5%?: Yes
Local tax?: Yes

Deli salad sold by weight, no utensils

State 4.5%?: No
Local tax?: Yes

Restaurant meal

State 4.5%?: Yes
Local tax?: Yes

Beer, vitamins, pet food

State 4.5%?: Yes
Local tax?: Yes

Chips and water from a food truck (over 75% prepared food)

State 4.5%?: Yes
Local tax?: Yes

What else is taxable

Oklahoma taxes the sale and rental of tangible personal property, plus a short list of services and transactions: telecommunications services, admissions, hotel and motel lodging, restaurant meals, and parking and vehicle storage. The Tax Commission noted in 2022 that no new services were added to the tax base that year. Most professional and personal services, such as legal, accounting, medical and consulting work, aren't subject to Oklahoma sales tax.

Contractors are treated as consumers. They pay sales tax when they buy materials, supplies and equipment used to build or improve real property, and they don't charge sales tax on the finished job. A sales tax permit lets you buy inventory for resale tax-free, but it can't be used to buy supplies, fixtures or equipment for your own business; those purchases are taxable.

Exempt buyers, such as certain nonprofits, farmers and manufacturers, need an exemption permit or card from the Tax Commission, and the vendor is responsible for checking it. Oklahoma's rule of thumb is that the vendor is liable for the tax unless it has documented proof of the exemption, so keep a copy of the buyer's exemption permit with each exempt sale.

Worked examples in dollars

An Oklahoma City furniture sale. A customer buys a $1,500 sofa at a store in the Oklahoma County part of Oklahoma City. Tax at 8.625% is $129.38, for a total of $1,629.38. If the store delivers the sofa to a customer in the Canadian County part of the city, the delivery address sets the rate, 8.975%, so tax is $134.63.

A Tulsa grocery trip. A shopper in Tulsa County spends $180 on groceries and $20 on vitamins and pet food. The groceries pay only local tax, 3.65% city plus 0.367% county, which is 4.017%, or $7.23. The $20 of non-food items pays the full 8.517%, or $1.70. Total tax: $8.93.

A food truck. A Tulsa food truck sells $8,000 of food in a month, more than 75% of it prepared, with napkins and forks available. All $8,000 is taxed at the full rate, so it owes 8.517%, or $681.36, even on the bottled water and chips.

Cash rounding. With pennies scarce since the U.S. Mint stopped making them in November 2025, a store may round a cash total to the nickel. The Commission's own example: a $25.50 item at 9.5% carries $2.42 of tax. The customer pays $27.90 after rounding, but the store still reports and remits $2.42.

Try it — Oklahoma City sales tax on $1,500

Purchase AmountState

Local / County Rate

Purchase Amount$1,500.00

State Tax (6.25%)$93.75

Local Tax (2%)$30.00

Combined Rate8.25%

Total Amount (Including Tax)$1,623.75

Open the full Sales Tax Calculator (PDF, save, compare)

Getting an Oklahoma sales tax permit

Any business selling or reselling taxable goods or services in Oklahoma needs a sales tax permit before making taxable sales. That includes retail stores, restaurants, mobile vendors and food trucks, resale shops, online sellers, wholesalers, and parking and storage businesses. You apply through the business registration application on OkTAP, the Tax Commission's online system. If you're forming an LLC or corporation, register with the Oklahoma Secretary of State first.

Under 68 O.S. § 1364, the permit fee is $20, and each additional place of business needs its own permit at $10. The registration and fee must be received before the permit is issued. Some businesses also need a bond: mixed beverage permit holders, for example, post a bond equal to three months of estimated tax, at least $1,500.

Your first permit is probationary for six months. If you file and pay on time, it renews automatically for another 30 months, and after that permits renew every three years when you pay the renewal fee. The Commission can refuse to renew a probationary permit if your application had inaccurate information, if an owner, partner, officer or member is behind on taxes, or if you bought a business or its assets from someone with an unpaid tax liability. Reporting zero total sales can also trigger a denial, because it suggests you don't need a permit yet.

Before your first Oklahoma sale

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Filing, paying and penalties

Most permit holders file monthly. The sales tax collected from the first through the last day of a month is due, with the return, by the 20th of the following month. If your tax is $50 or less a month, Oklahoma law allows semi-annual filing, with reports due July 20 for January through June and January 20 for July through December. A due date on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday moves to the next business day.

New registrants must file and pay electronically on OkTAP under Commission rule 710:65-3-1(d), unless they get a written exception, which lasts 12 months. Payment options include ACH debit, ACH credit and credit card. Report your sales by COPO code on the return so local tax reaches the right city and county.

Late payment costs a penalty of 10% of the tax due plus interest of 1.25% a month from the due date. After you pay, you can ask for a waiver of penalty and interest through OkTAP if there were good reasons. Repeated lateness is treated seriously: a business that fails to file or pay a business tax three times within 24 months can be closed unless it pays in full or agrees to a payment plan.

Oklahoma doesn't currently give a discount for filing on time. The old 1% vendor discount was repealed in 2017. A 2026 bill, House Bill 4318, would bring back a 1% discount capped at $1,000 a month per account; it cleared a House subcommittee in February 2026, but we found no record of it becoming law.

Townhomes and downtown Tulsa towers seen from above — Most of Tulsa is in Tulsa County at 8.517%, but the Osage and Wagoner County parts of the city pay more.· Image: Paul Sableman (CC BY 2.0)

Remote sellers and marketplaces

Under 68 O.S. § 1392, a seller without a physical presence in Oklahoma must register and collect state and local sales tax once it makes more than $100,000 of taxable Oklahoma sales in the preceding or current calendar year. The tax is based on where the goods are delivered, so remote sellers need address-level rates.

Marketplace facilitators that had at least $10,000 of Oklahoma sales in the previous 12 months must file an election with the Commission: either collect and remit the tax on sales they facilitate, or comply with notice and reporting requirements. A facilitator located in Oklahoma collects sales tax; one located outside the state collects Oklahoma vendor use tax. Out-of-state sellers below the threshold can still register voluntarily for a vendor use tax permit, which doesn't expire.

Remote seller path in Oklahoma

Step 1

Over $100,000

taxable Oklahoma sales this year or last

Step 2

Step 3

Collect state + local

by delivery address

Step 4

File by the 20th

report by COPO code

Use tax for Oklahoma businesses

Use tax is the part of Oklahoma's system that small businesses most often overlook. When you buy equipment, furniture, tools or supplies from an out-of-state seller that doesn't charge Oklahoma tax, you owe state use tax at 4.5% plus any city or county use tax where you use the goods. A Tulsa contractor that orders $5,000 of tools online without tax, for example, owes use tax on the full $5,000 at the Tulsa County location's rate.

Businesses with a sales tax permit report these purchases on their return. Businesses that only consume taxable goods, and never sell, register for a consumer use tax account instead; the Commission issues an account number rather than a permit. Items taken out of resale inventory for your own use, such as a store using stock for cleaning or giving products away as samples, are also subject to tax because they were bought tax-free.

Keep the records to back up every return: invoices, receipts, exemption permits from customers and proof of where you delivered goods. The Commission's guidance points businesses to keep statements and checks for at least three years, and auditors will ask to match exempt sales to the documents that support them. Good records also make it much easier to ask for a penalty waiver if you do slip up.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Charging the old state rate on groceries. Since August 29, 2024, grocery items pay only local tax. Check that your point-of-sale system codes food separately from prepared food, alcohol and supplements.

Taking all tax off groceries. The reverse error is just as common. City and county taxes still apply to food.

Using one rate for the whole city. Oklahoma City runs from 8.625% to 10.12% depending on the county. Look up each delivery address and report the right COPO code.

Buying supplies on your sales tax permit. The permit covers resale inventory only. Paying no tax on office supplies or equipment leaves you owing use tax plus penalty.

Letting a probationary permit lapse. File every return on time during the first six months, including zero returns, so the permit renews automatically.

Official links

What to do next

Apply for your permit on OkTAP, look up the COPO code and rate for every location and delivery area, and split groceries from prepared food in your register. Then set a reminder for the 20th of each month. Use the sales tax calculator to check receipts at 8.625% or your local rate, and our guide to calculating sales tax for tax-included prices. Selling into neighboring states? Compare our Texas, Kansas and Missouri sales tax guides.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice — confirm on the official source or with a professional.

Frequently asked questions

The state rate is 4.5%. Cities and counties add their own sales taxes, and together they often add more than the state does. Oklahoma City's total is 8.625% in Oklahoma County and Tulsa's is 8.517% in Tulsa County, according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission's rate locator. Groceries carry a 0% state rate but still pay local tax.

Sources & verification

Figures on this page were checked against the sources below when it was last reviewed on 9 October 2026. Each rate and limit is stored once with its own official source and review date, and official update channels are monitored daily so changes are picked up. How we verify

1.Sales & Use Tax — Oklahoma Tax Commission · accessed 9 October 2026
2.State Sales Tax on Food and Food Ingredients — Oklahoma Tax Commission · accessed 9 October 2026
3.Sales and Use Tax Rate Locator (lookups 202610090156 and 202610090158) — Oklahoma Tax Commission (hosted by the University of Oklahoma) · accessed 9 October 2026
4.Business Registration Packet A (Revised September 2025) — Oklahoma Tax Commission · accessed 9 October 2026
5.New Business Workshop booklet — Oklahoma Tax Commission · accessed 9 October 2026
6.Help Center — Businesses — Oklahoma Tax Commission · accessed 9 October 2026
7.SB 600 (2023-24) Senate floor version, quoting 68 O.S. § 1364 — Oklahoma Legislature · accessed 9 October 2026
8.HB 4318 (2026) bill summary — Oklahoma House of Representatives · accessed 9 October 2026

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