OCTOBER TERM, 1994
Syllabus
certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the eighth circuit
No. 93-1677. Argued November 28, 1994—Decided April 3, 1995
Respondent Jefferson Lines, Inc., a common carrier, did not collect or remit to Oklahoma the state sales tax on bus tickets sold in Oklahoma for interstate travel originating there, although it did so for tickets sold for intrastate travel. After Jefferson filed for bankruptcy, petitioner, Oklahoma Tax Commission, filed proof of claims for the uncollected taxes, but the Bankruptcy Court found that the tax was inconsistent with the Commerce Clause in that it imposed an undue burden on interstate commerce and presented a danger of multiple taxation. The District Court affirmed. The Court of Appeals also affirmed, holding that the tax was not fairly apportioned. Rejecting the Commission's position that a bus ticket sale is a wholly local transaction justifying a State's sales tax on the ticket's full value, the court reasoned that such a tax is indistinguishable from New York's unapportioned tax on an interstate bus line's gross receipts struck down by this Court in Central Greyhound Lines, Inc. v. Mealey, 334 U. S. 653.
Held: Oklahoma's tax on the sale of transportation services is consistent with the Commerce Clause. Pp. 179-200. (a) Under Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, 430 U. S. 274, Oklahoma's tax is valid if it is applied to an activity with a substantial nexus with the State, is fairly apportioned, does not discriminate against interstate commerce, and is fairly related to the services provided by the State. The activity here clearly has a nexus with Oklahoma, the State where the ticket is purchased and the service originates. Pp. 179-184. (b) The purpose of the second prong of Complete Auto's test is to ensure that each State taxes only its fair share of an interstate transaction. A properly apportioned tax must be both internally and externally consistent. Internal consistency looks to whether a tax's identical application by every State would place interstate commerce at a disadvantage as compared with intrastate commerce. There is no failure of such consistency in this case, for if every State were to impose a tax identical to Oklahoma's—i. e., a tax on ticket sales within the State for travel originating there—no sale would be subject to more than one State's tax. External consistency, on the other hand, looks to the economic justification for the State's claim upon the value taxed, to discover
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