Tipping waiters in the US tonight

There's a foreign exchange student at my school who brought over 500 of them from Germany

 

I generally do 20% also. If the service was below average or above average, then I will tip accordingly.

 

The only thing about not reporting cash is the restaurant can get in trouble if you take the 2.15 plus tips and you get below the minimum wage...I know when I bartended at applebees, we had to report tips till we got the minimum wage/hour...after that though was cash in our pocket tax free...

 

Actually you are suppose to report all tips as taxable income. If not don't cry if IRS comes knocking at your door.

 

d16man and debunked below him are absolutely correct. The IRS goes after restaurants, first, if there is an obvious underreportage scam going on (such as reported tips are less than credit card tips), since the chance of recovery is greater with the institution over individual staff.

I remember one particularly poignant morning when I called the entire front of house staff in to ream them all a new one, as they were making serious cash in tips, yet wanted to squeeze the extra little bit by radically underreporting or, worse, simply not reporting.

It also screws any hope any have of getting credit for a mortgage, etc.- if you report $10,000 (as opposed to the $45,000 you actually made), obviously, no credit.

 

The credit thing? Well, I wouldn't need credit unless I spent the extra (illegal) wealth in some silly way...

Anyway, I don't think the IRS can get you that easily as cash is quite invisible...

But I never had anything to do with IRS, so I am just guessing...

 

Sort of off topic but have you guys seen Reservoir Dogs? I love the part near the beginning when they argue about tipping at restaurants:

 

Well I bought my family supper at a family restaurant, and it came up to $37.50 and instead of saying do u accept 37.50 or whatever on the debit card machine i noticed it asked if u wish to leave a 20% tip lol trying to trick people

 

Haha, yeah, I've seen that as well.

Actually when I was in high school I got a job as a bus boy and I can remember one of the waiters telling me "When we get parties of 6 or more, sometimes we get really good tips because they don't realize a 15% gratuity is already included in the bill so they tip another 15%."

Kinda messed up

 

Wow, well I'm in gr.10 right now, I stick to fast food, no tipping there

 

15 - 20 % is ok, usually i pay 20%..there is only one time i paid almost 40%...

 

Did she have big ( . ) ( . ) 's? lol

 

it was a hooters night

 

That explains it, sometimes some ladies get 300% tips from me, if you know what I mean

 

we do not tip that much in my country. i dont think i ever left more then 10 percent

 

Me and my friends do 50%, the waiters actually know and remember our names.

 

It used to be 10% as everyone knows. Then, somehow it went up to 15%. Now... some committee somewhere made it 20%. How'd that happen?

back when it was 10% and dinner was 20 bucks. They got 2 dollars. Now, when the same dinner is 50 bucks, they get 10 dollars. I'm paying more for my meal and twice as much in tips.

10% is plenty. If they serve 5 dinners an hour at 50 bucks a dinner, that is 25 bucks an hour at 10% tips.

Also, don't forget, tips are for the staff. If the person serving you is the owner, they don't get tipped.

 

I'm quite happy to say that I completely disagree with you! A person is serving you, performing an act of servitude toward a fellow human, and they are usually paid very little for it.

I feel that if you disagree with proper tipping, eat at home or drive-through

 

Agreed! People - if you can't afford to tip, stay home, eat some mac cheese and save some money.

 

Would they be so generous if there was no money involved? NO. so that servitude towards a "fellow human" is bunk.

Do you tip everyone who serves you?

Usually? or in some cases? According to what I am reading here they make pretty good money.

Another thing that annoys me. If you don't tip them to their liking you are then some kinda bastard who is cheating them out of their money. But, when it comes time to report that as income.... all of a sudden its okay to cheat someone out of their money.