Published: December 30, 2008 11:23 am      

Sale tax receipts up considerably compared to last year

December sales tax revenue collected from McAlester shoppers in October rose more than 5 percent over the previous month and well out-paced last year’s sales by more than 16.4 percent, according to data compiled by the Oklahoma Tax Commission recently.

The December revenue tax disbursement report was released Dec. 24.

The revenue distributed to cities and counties this month generally represents collections of taxes paid by shoppers in October.

Sales tax distributions for McAlester this month were $1.39 million, up from $1.32 million in November and up from $1.195 million in December 2007.

The figures for the two years reflect a decrease in McAlester’s tax rate thanks to a bond issue that expired in October, dropping the tax rate from .037 percent to .035, or 3.5 cents on every $1.

Meanwhile, catalog and online shopping in McAlester tapered off in October as reflected in a drop in collections from November.

The tax, generally imposed on out-of-state purchases such as for catalog and online sales, dropped from $62,839 in November to $51,349 in December.

The use tax revenue distributed this month was up from $35,479 at the same time last year.

Pittsburg County’s tax collections are due to rise this week as a new quarter-cent sales tax goes into effect Thursday to support volunteer fire departments. The tax was approved by voters in July, raising the tax rate on sales in the county from three-quarters of a cent on every dollar to one cent.

Revenue distributed this month for Pittsburg County government coffers also rose over November, and over the same time last year. Sales tax distributions were reported at $675,328 for December, compared with $557,130 in November and $451,140 in December 2007. Meanwhile, the use tax distribution jumped from $38,056 last year to $72,505 this month, but fell from last month’s high of $113,207.

Among surrounding communities, sales tax distributions were mostly up over last year, except in Crowder (where it fell from $5,102 last year to $4,413 this year), Kiowa ($40,159 to $15,931), Pittsburg ($7,103 to $2,257), Savanna ($12,800 to $7,309) and Wilburton ($119,488 to $105,137). Some of the drops may reflect corrections of forecasts to report estimated collections for a coming month.

Contact Kandra Wells at kwells@mcalesternews.com.



Here are the sales tax returns for area cities, towns and counties as reported by the state Tax Commission for December, as compared with December 2007.



City 2008 2007

Alderson 14,985 1,594

Canadian 6,329 5,320

Crowder 4,413 5,102

Eufaula 147,371 133,173

Haileyville 4,329 4,022

Hartshorne 54,009 44,626

Indianola 2,137 1,314

Keota 9,504 5,546

Kinta 5,421 3,815

Kiowa 15,931 40,159

Krebs 114,803 54,476

McAlester 1,391,659 1,195,956

Pittsburg 2,257 7,103

Quinton 17,091 15,128

Red Oak 12,654 10,114

Savanna 7,309 12,800

Talihina 39,312 26,576

Wilburton 105,137 119,488



County 2008 2007

Latimer 246,599 246,736

McIntosh 229,187 216,543

Pittsburg 675,328 451,140

Source: Oklahoma Tax Commission www.tax.ok.gov