No tax on tips--why the hell did the gov't ever think they should get a portion anyway?
- Thread starter Orangeclad
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Why should BOH employees be taxed their full salary but FOH wouldn't.
The pay scale for FOH vs BOH has been a major issue for decades. This will make the divide even greater.
Granted, the restaurant industry needs reforms and their employees to be able to make a living wage wherever they work in the building but this one is a terrible, terrible idea. I don't agree with the National Resty Associations changing minds recently on this issue but that NRA has been useless for many years.
Signed,
Former Restaurant Group Executive
The pay scale for FOH vs BOH has been a major issue for decades. This will make the divide even greater.
Granted, the restaurant industry needs reforms and their employees to be able to make a living wage wherever they work in the building but this one is a terrible, terrible idea. I don't agree with the National Resty Associations changing minds recently on this issue but that NRA has been useless for many years.
Signed,
Former Restaurant Group Executive
I waited tables and bartended all through college.
Tips absolutely should be taxed if it is the primary source of income. And, I’m not talking about giving the guy that pressure washes your house and extra $20. The reality is those are not reported (or taxed) anyway.
But for jobs where they primary pay is a tip, like a bartender, they should absolutely pay taxes on it. We already have too many people that don’t pay any taxes. The reality is not everything is taxed already. A good chunk cash tips a server takes home isn’t “claimed” at the end of the night.
And, what is to stop a hair stylist from charging $10 to cut my hair and putting a mandatory 400% tip on top of it?
Tips absolutely should be taxed if it is the primary source of income. And, I’m not talking about giving the guy that pressure washes your house and extra $20. The reality is those are not reported (or taxed) anyway.
But for jobs where they primary pay is a tip, like a bartender, they should absolutely pay taxes on it. We already have too many people that don’t pay any taxes. The reality is not everything is taxed already. A good chunk cash tips a server takes home isn’t “claimed” at the end of the night.
And, what is to stop a hair stylist from charging $10 to cut my hair and putting a mandatory 400% tip on top of it?
The whole income tax situation is NOT FAIR. I really wish we would go to a "Fair tax" system that does away with deductions, and EVERYONE pays the same %. I am NOT in favor of a consumption tax, as it encourages people NOT to spend money.
Bad example. A tip is voluntary. Your 400% MANDATORY is not a tip. It's a surcharge.
Maybe, but the point still stands.
A very large percentage of service industry employees pay $0 in taxes on a portion of their income. Every dollar or every cash tip is not claimed. No way, no how.
We had a friend who was a hairstylist that probably made about 20% of her income in tips. Why should she not have to pay taxes on it? That doesn’t even count the customers who paid cash that went totally unclaimed.
Unfortunately in the restaurant business, at least, the tip is 90%+ of their pay. Restaurants only have to guarantee that if they don't make enough to equal minimum wage, that the restaurant with pay the difference.
Well, some tips are cash, but a would say a majority (55% +/-) of tips are actually paid by credit cards and in turn are actually being taxed.
It's higher than that now. Somewhere between 80-85%
I'll say this, a tip is a gift, not a requirement. Under our existing tax laws, gifts are technically taxable to the giver, not the recipient. I think there might be some minimum gift amounts to individuals that are exempt, but I can't remember that number.
My entire life I've taken the stance that hassling minimum wage workers over tips is a fool's errand, is but a drop in the bucket of tax revenue,and a burden on the hospitality industry trying to keep up with the complexities of "imputing" and guessing what a server is getting on the side for their services. Why the IRS chose to go down this rabbit hole is a big mystery to me.
It all goes right back to the core of the problem, "We are the government, and we are here to help".
I may start keeping the tip off the credit card and just handing the server a 5, 10 or 20 and tell them it's just a personal gift. Screw the gov't getting any of it to just completely waste it. How about more studies of shrimp on a treadmill.
I don't eat out much but this is what I do. If the server wants to pool their tips to split with other servers or dishwashers, that's their business, not mine.
i can agree with this. It’s probably the best way to handle it.
At the end of the day, the current tax code is a mess. 47% of people paying $0 in federal income tax is crazy to me.
THIS is the part that just pisses me off...and most of them have their hands out for free stuff
There are millionaires and billionaires included in that %...not just the poor.
Trump is going to abolish the IRS and income tax. He's been quite clear on that.
Gonna be amusing watching the country having MORE money WITHOUT income tax, and someone libs will still be complaining about it lol
BTW we did this during the Gilded Age. No Income Tax, we funded government off tariffs. Know how the libs convinced us to drop that and adopt income tax? By convincing Americans that ONLY THE RICH benefited from tariffs, and that ONLY THE RICH would pay income taxes.
We never learn.
Yeah, it doesn't sound like you really learned much about the subject before spouting off the above...just regurgitating very simple talking points of a much more complex issue, across a 100 year span.
Apples to cinder blocks sir.
So you offered grade school insults in an attempt to claim that *I* don't know the topic?
Liberals delight in projection. Be prepared to be upset when Trump makes us richer and you have to pay no income tax lol
What's different now is that thinking people have a healthy skepticism of gov't and media, only sheep believe everything they're told ...
I'll believe it when I see it like health care and infrastructure...or eggs 😆
Did you believe it when prices went THROUGH THE ROOF because of unnecessary inflation from the idiots in charge the last 4 years? Did you believe THEM when they said they needed congress to close the border? I must have missed those posts? Bill...you had better go load with some better bullets, son.....
Part of the problem with cash tips is servers are required to share some of that tip $ with busser, host, etc. And I have seen first hand where they often don't share the $. They except the food runner or busser or host to help them, but then do not want to share the tip.
And, I could be wrong on this, but some restaurants factor in a $amount for cash tips based on the % the server got on credit card tips. Then of course, they only have the $2 to 3 per hour they pay the server to cover the taxes owed. A lot of servers get screwed come tax time.
They only server job I ever had that didn't happen was one that pooled all tips and then the restaurant actually paid they correct amount of the taxes.
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