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“No tax on tips” is an industry plant

newyorker.com

241–250 of 618 posts

Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant

#241

What confuses me most is when you are given the option to give a tip before any service has been given. On deliveroo, for example, I have the option to tip the driver while I'm at the checkout. Why would I give a reward for good service when I have no idea if the service is even good? There's already a rider fee as part of my bill, so it doesn't make any sense to me to give them more money at that point

Is almost like a bribe I guess?

Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant

#242

Aren't we creating incentives for workers abuse: - No tax on overtime: so now making them work 60 hours a week is cheaper for the employer - No tax on tips: so the tip based payment model is cheaper

Income tax is paid from employee salaries/wages, not by employers.

Doesn’t matter, money is fungible.

Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant

#243

Doesn't this also open a huge opportunity for tax evasion? Say I am a small business owner selling a $90 item which is $100 with state sales taxes. I say if you are willing to tip me at least $90, the item is $1. The buyer saves $9 from state sales taxes, and I save on income taxes because tips are exempt from tax.

I’m not sure if this is meaningfully different from offering a cash discount because you evade taxes on cash transactions.

Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant

#244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re not paying for a service, you’re bidding in an open market. They don’t tell you this but it’s the reality. Drivers can tell if you don’t tip and all of the experienced ones will decline your order. Though these apps have done a lot of work to conceal the amount the driver actually gets until delivery is completed.

With Wolt the rider can’t see tips until after delivery.

... Which they can still use against you

Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant

#245

What confuses me most is when you are given the option to give a tip before any service has been given. On deliveroo, for example, I have the option to tip the driver while I'm at the checkout. Why would I give a reward for good service when I have no idea if the service is even good? There's already a rider fee as part of my bill, so it doesn't make any sense to me to give them more money at that point

You’re not paying for a service, you’re bidding in an open market. They don’t tell you this but it’s the reality. Drivers can tell if you don’t tip and all of the experienced ones will decline your order. Though these apps have done a lot of work to conceal the amount the driver actually gets until delivery is completed.

Surely most customers would benefit from knowing that they’re bidding for service? Don’t call it a tip, but a bid or priority fee.

Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant

#246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a weird way to say a sizable majority of tipped workers do pay taxes and will benefit from this.

it's indirect tax credits for businesses that don't want to pay workers.

There is no useful point to saying what you just said.

You can make that argument about literally anything that reduces the tax burden on people who's primary income is useful income.

Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant

#247
post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re not paying for a service, you’re bidding in an open market. They don’t tell you this but it’s the reality. Drivers can tell if you don’t tip and all of the experienced ones will decline your order. Though these apps have done a lot of work to conceal the amount the driver actually gets until delivery is completed.

Hm. If it is an open market, the consumer should also be able to decline/filter drivers, that take tips. Maybe it is a market, but sadly not open.

You can already filter out drivers that don't take tips (so, filter to zero) by just not placing the order.

Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have, in the UK. Probably 95% of customers didn't tip. I didn't have any problems with this. Why? I was nice to people because that was my job, but when I've travelled to the US I have definitely seen entitled customers treat staff like shit and claiming it's their right because they were tipping. Tipping as standard should go out the window, it just drives customers to be assholes.

I worked in a fast food restaurant here in the States, people tipped but usually not well. I wasn't pressed about it, I was getting a full minimum wage. Entitled customers didn't give me trouble for whatever reason, they seemed to size up my coworkers as softer targets. > Why? I was just curious about how OP's experience informed their perspective.

When visiting the States I have observed on a couple of occasions where a customer shouted at staff and used the threat of withholding a tip as leverage to be unreasonably nasty to wait staff.

The service industry in the US is awful, and the tipping culture is really toxic. I don't understand those that defend the American approach.

Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant

#249
I’d honestly like to hear from someone who is a proponent of tipping how they think it makes any sense. By that I don’t mean I need the reason for tipping explained to my, everybody understands the argument for why you should tip: but how does it make sense when you consider who you tip and who you don’t?

Re: “No tax on tips” is an industry plant

#250
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The crazier part is that it's spreading to more industries and more countries thanks to Americans thinking they should tip everyone everywhere. Thanks.

No, it's spreading because corporations are waking up to what an insanely good deal "pay my employees for me" is. In my state an employer is only responsible for raising an employee's effective wage (for the entire pay period) to minimum wage if the tips don't. You can tip someone working as a waiter $100 and unless they've already hit minimum wage for that pay period, all you're doing is handing $100 to the owner be…

And yet tipped servers often earn more that the cooks who make the food.
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