Pioneer Telephone Cooperative Inc. v. Oklahoma Tax Commission

SUMMERS, Justice.

The State of Oklahoma charges a sales tax on service to telephone users, which tax is billed and collected monthly as the service is used. The question is this: when a telephone cooperative charges its customers at a rate later determined to be in excess of its costs, can the cooperative get a refund of sales taxes collected and remitted to the Tax Commission on the excess?

Pioneer Telephone Cooperative, Inc. is one of six telephone cooperatives regulated by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Pioneer furnishes services to members in forty-six different telephone exchanges in…