Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you deduct tips paid as a business expense?
IANYTA but yes, it's a deductible expense just like the business meal.
I am not your true accountant?
Is 'No tax on tips' a distraction from the fight to end sub-minimum wages?
211–220 of 228 posts
Re: Is 'No tax on tips' a distraction from the fight to end sub-minimum wages?
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always found it strange that modern socialists and leftists are very supportive of income taxes, even though it is a dreadful burden on those people who have to work for their survival. Why wouldn't leftists instead be more for taxes and tariffs on land, on commerce, on natural resources or on luxuries? The funny thing is that one of the goals of the communist party in the Soviet Union was to abolish all income tax…
> I always found it strange that modern socialists and leftists are very supportive of income taxes, even though it is a dreadful burden on those people who have to work for their survival What? We did "trickle-down" economics before. Surprisingly enough, it didn't work. At all. Also, back in the 1950s/60s, we thoroughly soaked the rich and got to go to the moon[0]. Then the 1970s came around and the new gen of wealt…
When I say it's a dreadful burden, I mean it. For people doing physical labour and relying on their work for survival, they know exactly how much blood, sweat and tears they had to give for each dollar taken from them in taxes. For the people relying on real estate price appreciation for their income, taxes are more of an abstract.
Re: Is 'No tax on tips' a distraction from the fight to end sub-minimum wages?
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's Visa's normal service. Considering that exceptional is silly.
So should I not be tipping for normal service? Its pretty confusing because in my country tipping seems to be the expected default, not something reserved to exceptional circumstances.
All things equal, I do think tipping for normal service from people who are employees is messed up.
Unfortunately, culture in many countries is to tip in certain situations, especially in restaurants, even for normal service. But just because it's culturally normal to tip in restaurants in your country doesn't mean you'd tip a giant corporation like Visa. That's not how culture works.
Re: Is 'No tax on tips' a distraction from the fight to end sub-minimum wages?
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you must tip, only ever use cash. Otherwise you're also subsidizing Square, Toast, Visa, Stripe, etc. Did they give you exceptional service today? Use cash.
Not that I disagree with this point but I'd say the best reason to choose cash would be that you can control who receives it. Give it directly to the person who provided the service you're tipping for, whenever possible.
Exactly! Otherwise you're giving control over the money to someone else, who will use that control to further screw over the already marginalized service worker.
Re: Is 'No tax on tips' a distraction from the fight to end sub-minimum wages?
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you must tip, only ever use cash. Otherwise you're also subsidizing Square, Toast, Visa, Stripe, etc. Did they give you exceptional service today? Use cash.
Tipping cash is great whenever you have it, but it's not convenient. Not in the age of digital payments that can be completed with your mobile phone.
You're absolutely right, cash is indeed inconvenient. But all digital payments make you pay a middleman "platform" which tries to extract as much of the transaction as possible while providing the minimum possible value. Oh and by the way this platform's also trying to become a monopoly so it can eventually provide less than the minimum value without losing you as a customer.
Crypto claims to be a solution to this, but in practice approximately all crypto transactions go through a middleman (exchange) which takes a cut. It's unreasonable to expect your barista to go through the effort of accepting crypto payments without involving an exchange.
Cash doesn't have this problem.
I'd love to be proven wrong about this. Is there a digital payment method that runs on phones that doesn't subsidize a middleman?
Re: Is 'No tax on tips' a distraction from the fight to end sub-minimum wages?
#216Re: Is 'No tax on tips' a distraction from the fight to end sub-minimum wages?
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
Businesses already pay the exact minimum wage of $2.13/hour. The employees either make an additional $5.12/hour in tips or the employer must make up the difference at every pay period. Employees routinely underreport their tip earnings beyond the $5.12/hour to not pay taxes and fly under the DoL radar. Edit: I should add that lots of states and some cities have their own minimum wage laws but they are all structured…
> I should add that lots of states and some cities have their own minimum wage laws but they are all structured the same. Rule of thumb, there's _nothing_ in US law where you can say "things vary by state, but they're all the same in way X". In this case, California has no concept of tip credits. All employees, regardless of whether they receive tips, must be paid at least minimum wage (Currently 16 $/hr)
There are several laws like that, for example for child support. But there isn’t one for minimum wage. You cannot however violate Federal minimum wage laws as enforced by DoL at the state or local level. So in effect that law spells out a pattern.
Having reviewed these laws in all applicable jurisdictions they do follow the same pattern: California’s tip credit is $0 as of right now. Oh and there is the Panera exception to its minimum wage law which is fairly novel.
Re: Is 'No tax on tips' a distraction from the fight to end sub-minimum wages?
#218I really wanted us to pull back away from tipping culture (to just paying more fairly), but an exemption on tax income is only going to make tipping culture much more pervasive. We already don’t have a sub min here in Washington state, and then we have tips asked for at self service kiosks, when will it end? Now I’ll be expected to tip my car mechanic also?
Re: Is 'No tax on tips' a distraction from the fight to end sub-minimum wages?
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Tipping" absolutely is a kind of bribe. Let's take police officers in México, for México, for example. One needs to pay bribes to get anything done. On the other hand, they have almost zero job protection, have absolutely crappy salaries, most of the time have to buy their own uniforms, their own gas for the police cars, and so forth. And on top of that, they have to contribute to "upwards bribes", so they can keep…
Yet in the US we don't tip teachers.
Yet? It’s always awkward at the end of the school year when we are asked to prepare gifts for the teachers. Like, how do you do that without it appearing as a bribe/entitlement?
Re: Is 'No tax on tips' a distraction from the fight to end sub-minimum wages?
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tipping cash is great whenever you have it, but it's not convenient. Not in the age of digital payments that can be completed with your mobile phone.
You're absolutely right, cash is indeed inconvenient. But all digital payments make you pay a middleman "platform" which tries to extract as much of the transaction as possible while providing the minimum possible value. Oh and by the way this platform's also trying to become a monopoly so it can eventually provide less than the minimum value without losing you as a customer. Crypto claims to be a solution to this, b…
Chinese payment platforms are the closest to a light middle man, but this might just be VC subsidizing things. Cash has its own expense of course, you need a middleman regardless, even if it’s just your local bank branch taking daily merchant cash deposits.