194
Opinion of the Court
incapacity to reach the corresponding sale, it is commonly paired with a sales tax, see, e. g., D. H. Holmes, 486 U. S., at 31; Boston Stock Exchange v. State Tax Comm'n, 429 U. S. 318, 331-332 (1977); Henneford v. Silas Mason Co., 300 U. S. 577 (1937), being applicable only when no sales tax has been paid or subject to a credit for any such tax paid. Since any use tax would have to comply with Commerce Clause requirements, the tax scheme could not apply differently to goods and services purchased out of state from those purchased domestically. Presumably, then, it would not apply when another State's sales tax had previously been paid, or would apply subject to credit for such payment. In either event, the Oklahoma ticket purchaser would be free from multiple taxation.
True, it is not Oklahoma that has offered to provide a credit for related taxes paid elsewhere, but in taxing sales Oklahoma may rely upon use-taxing States to do so. This is merely a practical consequence of the structure of use taxes as generally based upon the primacy of taxes on sales, in that use of goods is taxed only to the extent that their prior sale has escaped taxation. Indeed the District of Columbia and 44 of the 45 States that impose sales and use taxes permit such a credit or exemption for similar taxes paid to other States. See 2 Hellerstein & Hellerstein
¶ 18.08, p. 18-48; 1 All States Tax Guide ¶ 256 (1994). As one state court summarized the provisions in force:
"These credit provisions create a national system under which the first state of purchase or use imposes the tax. Thereafter, no other state taxes the transaction unless there has been no prior tax imposed . . . or if the tax rate of the prior taxing state is less, in which case the subsequent taxing state imposes a tax measured only by the differential rate." KSS Transportation Corp. v. Baldwin, 9 N. J. Tax 273, 285 (1987).
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