PO's & Supplier Interface Sales Tax

Updated 4/6/2018


Westmont College is NOT tax-exempt from use/sales tax on goods and services purchased for use by the college. It is a requirement for doing business with the college that all of our suppliers collect sales tax for our purchases, and remit that sales tax to the State of California directly.

The only current exceptions are; a) purchases made (order placed and paid) over internet e-commerce sites (this does not include orders placed via e-mail to vendors who otherwise do not operate an e-commerce site), and b) certain services that are never subject to sales tax (those are primarily in the Human Resources area).

Common carrier freight of goods to campus prepaid by the vendor is not taxable, and should be separated as a non-taxed line item on purchase orders and invoices.

For material and labor provided by outside contractors, only the labor is non-taxable. The material must be separated on their invoice and tax must be collected by the contractor.

For purchases picked-up/delivered before March 31, 2018, the sales tax rate was 7.75% for California/Santa Barbara County, including the City of Santa Barbara.

The sales tax rate for the City of Santa Barbara changed on April 1, 2018. This applies to Westmont College invoices dated after 3/31/18 (shipment took place 4/1/18 or later) as follows:

  • Purchases picked up from a supplier in the City of Santa Barbara - 8.75%
  • Purchases picked up from a supplier elsewhere in the County of Santa Barbara - 7.75%
  • Purchases delivered to (including installed at) 955 La Paz Road - no matter where the supplier is located - 7.75%
  • Purchases delivered to (including installed at) Westmont Downtown - no matter where the supplier is located - 8.75%

CAMPUS BUYERS: Please do not submit any invoices into the Vendorlink system that do not include required sales tax. Ask your supplier to re-issue a new invoice that includes the tax and submit only that updated invoice. If your supplier will not comply with this request, please contact Bill Groeneveld in Procurement for assistance. 

SUPPLIERS: If you need clarification on this issue, please contact Bill Groeneveld, Associate Director of Procurement and Contracts at (805) 565-6849.

If you need to get set up to collect sales tax for California, contact the California Board of Equalization and submit all applicable forms:

  • “Application for Sellers Permit”
  • and if applicable “Registration of Out of State Supplier (403B)”

You can obtain these and get complete information by calling 1-800-400-7115, or visit their website.