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Any waiters or waitress been audited by the feds? Re: tipping

BigBooper

Member
Whenever I go to a restaurant and am able, I always leave a cash tip. Whether they report it or not is up to them.

I was reading an article that said they were more likely to be audited, but it read like it was written by Mr Ayares.
 

Kilau

Member
No, but it’s been awhile since I did serving and bartending. I was also a manager and never heard of that happening to anyone.

It’s not like it’s a ton of money anyway, shouldn’t raise any interest. Vast majority is going to be on cards now and that all gets reported.
 

Thaedolus

Gold Member
The IRS isn’t all that concerned with simple returns from lower-wage earners. It’s the people that file giant returns and claim exemptions and deductions out the ass they go for according to more than one CPA I’ve asked.

Maybe they’re full of shit, but I can’t imagine most servers are worth going after considering the maximum amount they might be getting away with is relatively low
 

Kenpachii

Member
what i know is here they look at spikes. If its normal x amount, and suddenly a year u jump up 3 times they will start to dig.
 
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nush

Member
what i know is here they look at spikes.

can't see a spike if they spend that cash as well... cash.

GIF by Identity
 

HoodWinked

Member
Feel like cash tips are probably becoming more and more rare as people are moving away from physical cash. So it's probably not that much of an issue. Now if they are getting hundreds of dollars on tips they gotta pay like everyone else.
 

Ballthyrm

Member
As a European tipping feels wrong to me on so many levels.

Why do I have to tip ? Can't you pay your waiter a decent wage, why do I have to pay twice.
If you are fat, old or a minority , well too bad, you'll get less tips because that's one more way people can express their racism, etc.
The quality of service, you say ? Well , waiters aren't dumb, they know enough to see who will pay them good tip with experience. So probably not you, unless you tip a lot.
As for the service itself, cultural expectation are way different, I'm not at a restaurant to be interrupted every 5 minutes to tell a stranger that everything is okay. Just go away, I'll call when I need you.

Also, I have to tip so many different kind of people , It's hard to keep track of who to tip or not. I don't need the mental strain, or the silly math of 20% of whatever I just payed.
I don't like cash anyways and this force you to keep cash on yourself.

I think tipping is just a power trip people across the Atlantic like to have , so they have some power of people who are hostage of their shitty labor laws.
I much prefer the sometime disagreable face waiters make over here, at least you know what they really think of you.
 

Winter John

Gold Member
The feds can't trace cash tips so what they look for is someone whose reported earnings are wildly different than everyone else's. That's a sure sign of fuckery. Then they'll basically go in and audit everyone in the bar/restaurant to see what they can find.
I tell my staff it's up to them how much they want to put down on their sheets, but they need to be smart about it. Knock off $10 here, $20 there. Don't get greedy and make sure their income matches their living expenses. There's been times when I've had to quietly explain to someone that claiming they only made $18 in tips 3 months in a row ain't a good idea. I know a couple of other bar owners nearby who have an automatic tip deduction for every shift. That's not a bad idea, but some shifts are slower than others. So I'd rather stick with the honor system.
 

TheMan

Member
I was a waiter for years in a past life, and I never heard of it actually happening. I do remember the idea of an audit being used as a scare tactic to push us to report truthfully. I’m a pussy so I always did, but I know a lot of coworkers who didn’t.

honestly I can’t imagine the IRS going after people making like 20k or less (sometimes much less) for something like that.
 
As a European tipping feels wrong to me on so many levels.

Why do I have to tip ? Can't you pay your waiter a decent wage, why do I have to pay twice.
If you are fat, old or a minority , well too bad, you'll get less tips because that's one more way people can express their racism, etc.
The quality of service, you say ? Well , waiters aren't dumb, they know enough to see who will pay them good tip with experience. So probably not you, unless you tip a lot.
As for the service itself, cultural expectation are way different, I'm not at a restaurant to be interrupted every 5 minutes to tell a stranger that everything is okay. Just go away, I'll call when I need you.

Also, I have to tip so many different kind of people , It's hard to keep track of who to tip or not. I don't need the mental strain, or the silly math of 20% of whatever I just payed.
I don't like cash anyways and this force you to keep cash on yourself.

I think tipping is just a power trip people across the Atlantic like to have , so they have some power of people who are hostage of their shitty labor laws.
I much prefer the sometime disagreable face waiters make over here, at least you know what they really think of you.

Tipping benefits both employer and employee. Employers love it cause they can pay someone 5 bucks an hour. Servers/bartenders love it cause they can average 20-30 (or more, WAY more) an hour.
If they eliminated tipping I'd leave the industry in a heartbeat.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
I feel like its almost an unspoken rule that waiters/waitresses don't get audited lol. I've never once heard of it.
 

Kilau

Member
Tipping benefits both employer and employee. Employers love it cause they can pay someone 5 bucks an hour. Servers/bartenders love it cause they can average 20-30 (or more, WAY more) an hour.
If they eliminated tipping I'd leave the industry in a heartbeat.
Yep, had a lot of college girls bring in crazy tips working for me. They had flexible schedules for school stuff and made more than enough to be comfortable for college life.

I can understand how other cultures where it isn’t ingrained like here that it seems like a bad system.
 

Rbk_3

Member
As a European tipping feels wrong to me on so many levels.

Why do I have to tip ? Can't you pay your waiter a decent wage, why do I have to pay twice.
If you are fat, old or a minority , well too bad, you'll get less tips because that's one more way people can express their racism, etc.
The quality of service, you say ? Well , waiters aren't dumb, they know enough to see who will pay them good tip with experience. So probably not you, unless you tip a lot.
As for the service itself, cultural expectation are way different, I'm not at a restaurant to be interrupted every 5 minutes to tell a stranger that everything is okay. Just go away, I'll call when I need you.

Also, I have to tip so many different kind of people , It's hard to keep track of who to tip or not. I don't need the mental strain, or the silly math of 20% of whatever I just payed.
I don't like cash anyways and this force you to keep cash on yourself.

I think tipping is just a power trip people across the Atlantic like to have , so they have some power of people who are hostage of their shitty labor laws.
I much prefer the sometime disagreable face waiters make over here, at least you know what they really think of you.

The worst is in Canada. Servers make $12.50, $1.50 under the minimum wage but basically expect a 15-20% tip.
 

*Nightwing

Member
Worked in restaurant management for a while long ago. Never once reported how much tips employees made in cash. The ability is there in the HR software, it’s never used and every server was reporting $0 in cash tips. Never have heard of any servers ever being audited.

Probably since they make under the poverty limit in the US at least they don’t have to file federal taxes so the IRS doesn’t care since you don’t have to file if you make an unlivable wage such as servers do.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
The IRS should have bigger fish than servers tips.
Dunno about that. 2 million wait staff, if they don't report say $2k a year in tips on average that's $4 billion in untaxed wages.
If they could crack down they would, but there is no easy way to do it, and credit cards etc kinda solved a lot of the problem for them.
 

GeekyDad

Member
It's been years and years since I waited tables, but I was always told that as long as we claimed 10 percent of our total sales, we were good. I never got audited.
 
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