Oklahoma Tax Comm'n v. Jefferson Lines, Inc., 514 U.S. 175, 24 (1995)

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198

OKLAHOMA TAX COMM'N v. JEFFERSON LINES, INC.

Opinion of the Court

criminates against out-of-state enterprises, and there is no merit in the argument that the tax discriminates against interstate activity.

The argument proffered by Jefferson and amicus Greyhound Lines is largely a rewriting of the apportionment challenge rejected above, and our response needs no reiteration here. See Brief for Respondent 40; Brief for Greyhound Lines, Inc., as Amicus Curiae 20-27. Jefferson takes the additional position, however, that Oklahoma discriminates against out-of-state travel by taxing a ticket "at the full 4% rate" regardless of whether the ticket relates to "a route entirely within Oklahoma" or to travel "only 10 percent within Oklahoma." Brief for Respondent 40. In making the same point, amicus Greyhound invokes our decision in Scheiner, which struck down Pennsylvania's flat tax on all trucks traveling in and through the State as "plainly discriminatory." 483 U. S., at 286. But that case is not on point.

In Scheiner, we held that a flat tax on trucks for the privilege of using Pennsylvania's roads discriminated against interstate travel, by imposing a cost per mile upon out-of-state trucks far exceeding the cost per mile borne by local trucks that generally traveled more miles on Pennsylvania roads. Ibid. The tax here differs from the one in Scheiner, however, by being imposed not upon the use of the State's roads, but upon "the freedom of purchase." McLeod v. J. E. Dil-worth Co., 322 U. S., at 330. However complementary the goals of sales and use taxes may be, the taxable event for one is the sale of the service, not the buyer's enjoyment or the privilege of using Oklahoma's roads. Since Oklahoma facilitates purchases of the services equally for intrastate and interstate travelers, all buyers pay tax at the same rate on the value of their purchases. See D. H. Holmes, 486 U. S., at 32; cf. Scheiner, supra, at 291 ("[T]he amount of Pennsylvania's . . . taxes owed by a trucker does not vary directly . . . with some . . . proxy for value obtained from the State"). Thus, even if dividing Oklahoma sales taxes by

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