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vozveratu
Advanced Member
Username: vozveratu
Post Number: 857
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 11:45 am: | 
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Three Websites, two with ALL the history and etiquette of tipping, while the other is the Straight Dope of tipping on tax or subtotal. Read it.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mtiplesstax.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipping
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_333.html |
regularguy
New member
Username: regularguy
Post Number: 26
Registered: 06-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 03:58 pm: |
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Yeah, pretty comical post on the tipping on pre or post tax. He waves away the standard of tipping pre tax by basically saying servers aren't smart enough/have time to calculate it and feels better (social pressure) because of what server would think. Even in his view there is no clear expectation.
Some sites that appear to be more authoritative than the one listed:
http://honeymoons.about.com/cs/travelplanner/a/TippingGuide%20.htm
Tipping Guide – What to Tip – Travel Tipping Policy
From Susan Breslow Sardone,
Your Guide to Honeymoons / Romantic Getaways.
Waiter
Tip 15 percent based on the pre-tax total.
From AAA travel site:
http://viamagazine.com/top_stories/articles/patron03.asp
Be a Four-Star Restaurant Patron
A few tips on tipping — Tip at least 15 percent, pretax, if the service met your expectations. Twenty percent or more if it went above and beyond.
And one more
http://soundmoneytips.com/article/3441
How much should you tip your server at a buffet restaurant?
The tip also should always be calculated off the pretax amount regardless of whether you're dining at a buffet or a full service meal. "You don't want to pay a tip on the tax," says Mr. Post.
Remember the person in the original link probably has less basis to comment than LOA on the topic anyway. Bottom line most servers would like it on post tax, most people would agree pretax is correct but sometimes use post tax to be nice or its easier.
p.s. The original guy also states that the average (meaning typical tip he gives) is 15%. So I think most servers would prefer 17-18% pretax to this guys 15% post tax  |
vozveratu
Advanced Member
Username: vozveratu
Post Number: 858
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 08:08 am: |
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Yeah, but the reasoning is this; how big of a difference is it to tip on pre-tax to total of bill? A few dollars for the big bills and a few cents for the small bills.
This is a lot for LOA, but for most people, tipping 20.00 on a 100.00 compared to 18.80 on a 92'ish bill is only an extra 1.20 or so. |
rev_rund
Intermediate Member
Username: rev_rund
Post Number: 257
Registered: 06-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 09:40 am: |
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I was wondering if anyone knows which standard the IRS uses? I know that a server is obligated to claim 100% of their tips but if they were to be audited would the IRS look at their pre or post tax sales? Any guesses |
vozveratu
Advanced Member
Username: vozveratu
Post Number: 859
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 10:16 am: |
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Pre-Tax. It's sales of the server, not the sales+tax. |
genise
New member
Username: genise
Post Number: 20
Registered: 09-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 11:44 pm: |
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Taxes are never counted as sales. |
westley
Junior Member
Username: westley
Post Number: 71
Registered: 03-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 25, 2006 - 06:12 pm: |
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"Yeah, but the reasoning is this; how big of a difference is it to tip on pre-tax to total of bill? A few dollars for the big bills and a few cents for the small bills. "
That's a pretty silly argument. The argument that it's not very much, so why not just leave it can just as easily be that it's not very much so why not keep it. ie, there's no argument at all. |
vozveratu
Advanced Member
Username: vozveratu
Post Number: 868
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - 09:53 am: |
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The argument that it's not very much, so why not just leave it can just as easily be that it's not very much so why not keep it. ie, there's no argument at all.
Agreed. |
ricmcg
New member
Username: ricmcg
Post Number: 28
Registered: 03-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 09, 2006 - 02:16 pm: |
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There is an argument for leaving the extra dollar or two that you would tip on tax. Say your bill is $50 for two people for a meal after tax. An appropriate tip would be $10, bringing your overall spending to $60. If you tip on the non-tax total, you may tip on $45, and tip $9 instead, bringing your total to $59 instead of $60. You spending $59 vs. $60 will not make a difference to you whatsoever. However, if every table I had in an evening left an extra dollar, i would make $20 extra per night. A little bit makes a difference to the server.
Also as a side note, when we as servers are tipping out our bartenders, bussers and food runners, we tip them out based on our sales+tax, not just sales alone. |
westley
Junior Member
Username: westley
Post Number: 77
Registered: 03-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, October 09, 2006 - 03:33 pm: |
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That argument has nothing to do with tax. Why not just say that if we used 22% instead of 20%, or 17% instead of 15%, then there would be an extra dollar, which would add up to a lot? There's still no argument that has anything to do with tax or whether you should tax pre- or post-.
For that matter, why is it assumed that I don't really care about an extra dollar out of my pocket every time I go out, but the server will care about the $20 that it adds up to? If I decide that every time I eat out, I will take the extra dollar and put it in my ashtray in my car, and I won't spend any of it until it all adds up to $20 total, is it then ok to only tip based on pre-tax? |