Nobody opens a cigar shop because they love tax compliance. But get this wrong and you’ll pay for it — literally — at filing time. The good news is that TORO handles the math automatically once you tell it what your rates are. The setup takes ten minutes. Fixing mistakes later takes much longer.
Setting Your Sales Tax Rate #
Head to Dashboard > Setup System > Tax and enter your tax rate as a percentage. If you’re in an area with a single combined rate (say, 8.25%), just enter that number and you’re done.
If your jurisdiction breaks it into components — state tax, county tax, city tax — configure each one separately. TORO adds them up and applies the correct total to every transaction. This matters because some of those components might change independently, and you’ll want to update just the one that moved without touching the others.
Save it, and from that point forward every sale gets taxed correctly. You don’t have to think about it again unless your rates change.
Special and Excise Tax (Tobacco-Specific) #
This is where it gets specific to your industry. Many jurisdictions impose additional taxes on tobacco products — OTP (Other Tobacco Products) tax, floor tax, excise tax — on top of regular sales tax. TORO has a dedicated special tax system for exactly this.
Go to Settings > Tax > Special Tax and add a new special tax. You’ll set:
- Name — something descriptive like “State OTP Tax” or “County Excise”
- Rate — the percentage or fixed amount
- Minimum dollar value — only apply this tax to items priced above a certain threshold, if your jurisdiction requires it
- Maximum cap per item — some taxes cap out at a certain dollar amount per item
- Transaction cap — maximum tax per transaction, if applicable
- Active date range — for taxes that have a start or expiration date (like a temporary floor tax)
Assign each special tax to the product types it applies to. Cigars might carry one rate, pipe tobacco another, accessories none at all. You can have multiple special taxes active simultaneously — TORO applies each one to the right products automatically.
Tax-Exempt Sales #
Some of your customers won’t owe tax. Resellers with a valid tax ID, nonprofit organizations, government agencies — they all qualify for tax-exempt status in most jurisdictions.
In TORO, you flag these accounts as tax-exempt right on their customer profile. Once that flag is set, any time that customer is attached to a transaction, tax is automatically removed. No manual overrides, no remembering who’s exempt and who isn’t.
Tax-exempt status is tracked per account, so you’ve got a record of who has it and when it was granted. If you ever need to prove to an auditor that you collected a tax ID before granting the exemption, that documentation matters.
Refunds work correctly too. If a tax-exempt customer returns something, TORO knows there was no tax to refund and handles it cleanly.
The Sales Tax Report #
Head to Dashboard > Reports > Sales Tax to see your monthly tax breakdown. The report calculates three main buckets:
- Net Sales Taxable — the total sales that had tax applied
- Net Sales Non-Taxable — product sales with no tax (tax-exempt items, out-of-state sales, etc.)
- Coupons & Discounts — coupon redemptions and customer discounts, tracked separately so they don’t muddy your non-taxable product numbers
Each bucket has a View button that drills into the individual line items behind that number. The View Coupons & Discounts button also shows the total dollar amount right on the button itself, so you can see the impact at a glance before clicking in.
This separation matters because coupons and discounts aren’t really “non-taxable sales” — they’re reductions to taxable sales. By breaking them out, the Non-Taxable column shows only actual non-taxable product sales, giving you a cleaner picture for tax filing.
Other Tax Reports #
TORO tracks every penny of tax collected, broken out by type. Sales tax and special tax are reported separately, so when it’s time to file, you’re not untangling anything.
In the Advanced Reporting Module, the Tax Reports show you collection totals by period — daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, whatever your filing schedule requires. You can export the data for your accountant or your filing software.
If different product categories carry different tax rates, the reports break that down too. You’ll see exactly how much tax was collected on cigars vs. pipe tobacco vs. accessories, which is exactly what the tax authority wants to see.
Keeping It Right #
A few things to keep in mind as you go:
TORO doesn’t auto-detect your local rate. You’re responsible for entering the correct percentage. If you’re not sure, check with your local tax authority or your accountant. This isn’t something to guess on.
Rate changes apply going forward. If your state raises the tax rate on July 1st, update it in TORO on July 1st. Past transactions keep their original tax rate — which is correct. You collected the right amount at the time of sale.
Update promptly when rates change. When your jurisdiction announces a rate change, put it on your calendar. The day it takes effect, update TORO. Every transaction between the effective date and when you update the system will have the wrong tax amount, and that’s a headache to reconcile.
Different categories can have different rates. If your jurisdiction taxes tobacco products differently than general merchandise, set that up in the product type tax configuration. TORO applies the right rate based on what’s being sold.
Consult your accountant. TORO collects the tax and keeps immaculate records of what was collected. But a professional should verify you’re collecting the right amounts, filing on time, and handling edge cases correctly. The system is a tool — it’s not a substitute for professional tax advice.
Keep your records. If you’re ever audited, TORO’s tax reports are your documentation. They show exactly what was collected, when, on what, and at what rate. That level of detail is what makes an audit go smoothly instead of painfully.
