Calculating Tip: Include Tax or Not?

[maat55]

[quote]

Originally Posted by disneysteve

Gnocchi is a pasta product made from potato. Try it some time, especially if you have the opportunity to get the homemade stuff.

I'll give gnocchi a try, anything made out of potato can't be bad.

[kork13]

Personally, I only tip because it's expected. normally i shoot around 15% then round to the dollar... but agian, simply because in the U.S. it's considered rude not to tip.

Having spent the majority of my life outside the U.S., I'll say that many places around the world (Japan and many places in Europe work well as examples), it is considered rude to leave a tip for your wait staff. It says that you believe they are desparate for the extra cash, or a number of other things about the waiter/waitress and the establishment which I can't really describe, they're just there.... A friend of mine once left a healthy tip on the table in a Japanese restaurant, only to have the obviously very embarrassed/distressed waitress come out and find us on the busy street to return the "mistakenly left" Yen.

So I'll agree with (i believe) disneysteve, in that i believe tips should not be expected. In those places I describe, the wait staffs are well-paid (on par with any blue-collar worker, and then some). Tips are not expected at all, and often rejected outright. I'd be very happy to see it that way in the U.S., where a "gratuity" really means that you are truly grateful to someone for his/her exceptional service to you, whether as a waiter, maid, taxi, etc.

[PrincessPerky]

The trouble with some restaurants is paying 50 for a meal is no guarantee of better food.

that and some of us view eating out as a break from cooking and dishes...it doesn't take much to beat my cooking

There are very few dishes I can do better than even fast food! (and none I can do without the dishes) so yeah I would rather go to olive garden every week than DS's fave spot once every couple months....sorry.(though we can't afford weekly OG either)

course if I had the money I would take DSs pick over a chain.

Oh and first I hear of gnocci I thought it was pronounced 'nookie' so I tell this elderly customer the special of the day was 'nookie', He informed me I had to be wrong and he wasn't buying that sort of thing. (I teach kindergarten, gn says NNNN, oo as in hook, i as is ski....NNNoookee)

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by PrincessPerky

The trouble with some restaurants is paying 50 for a meal is no guarantee of better food.

While that's true, I can't recall any time when we had bad food at a fine restaurant. We have had service issues on occasion, but the difference is that at the nice places, they actually apologize, maybe bring over an extra dish or a round of drinks and/or reduce the bill to make up for it. Once, a very fine place was late in seating us. While we were waiting, they repeatedly apologized for the delay. When they did seat us, they had a chilled bottle of champagne waiting and an extra appetizer for all of us on the house. That just doesn't happen at Applebee's.

And yes, they got a very nice tip.

[ithaca]

I always tip with cash, even if I pay with a credit card. That way the server can choose whether or not to pay taxes on the tip.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by ithaca

I always tip with cash, even if I pay with a credit card. That way the server can choose whether or not to pay taxes on the tip.

I'm not sure that makes a difference. Aren't they assumed to be earning a certain amount and that's what they get taxed on?

[PrincessPerky]

you are supposed to claim what you were tipped...most servers do not claim all they are given...I was told to claim at least 7% to avoid getting an audit.. I generally claimed 10 if I had it ....well that was when I worked eons ago (I am getting old!)

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by PrincessPerky

you are supposed to claim what you were tipped...most servers do not claim all they are given...I was told to claim at least 7% to avoid getting an audit.. I generally claimed 10 if I had it ....well that was when I worked eons ago (I am getting old!)

How were tips on credit cards handled? Did those get reported as income or was it still up to you to report it? I know I've been in plenty of places where I left the tip on the credit card and when I paid the bill, I saw the cashier take out the cash for the tip and give it to the server.

[DebbieL]

When I worked as a waitress I never claimed a dime of my tip money (and neither did anyone else I knew in the industry at the time). For tips left on credit card slips, we just took the cash out of the till.

[geojen]

Where I worked, we got cash out of the till for credit card tips. However, the register had a record of how much we had in food sales and the amount in credit card tips, so we had to claim at least the percentage that was recorded for the credit card tips.

[PrincessPerky]

I worked in PA, it may have been a state law,

The cash was taken out of the drawer for credit card tips at one store, and added to my check at another.

The claim minimum may have been the restaurants rule not state. They can get in big trouble if their wait staff doesn't claim a total of minimum wage from hourly and tips combined.

[ithaca]

So...... I think I'm going to continue to tip with cash so that it's entirely up to the server to handle it. No trouble for the restaurant, no swapping cash from the till, etc.