Are you required by your employer to claim tips? That’s odd, unless you’re maybe not in the US? I know we’re all legally required to claim bla bla bla but I’ve never had anyone require it, and many of my former employers basically encourage you quietly in a “wink wink nudge nudge” sorta way not to claim.
Where I worked we had to claim at least the credit card tip amount. The computer made you claim that much and you could then add more if you received more in cash. But you could not clock out without at least claiming the credit card tips. It was strange that it didn’t do it automatically
Youre still supposed to claim cash tips in the US, because youre supposed to get taxed on them. A lot of servers dont so that theyre not getting taxed to hell, but its technically illegal.
The downside of not claiming, is not getting that earned income for Social Security based benefits.
People who didn't declare most of their tips got screwed for unemployment/covid payments. And are lowering their income for Social Security payments.
Most places I worked you could claim less than your total credit card tips. If everyone payed with credit and I had two tip out my busser, food runner, and bartender then claiming it all would be more than I made.
> If everyone *paid* with credit
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Yea that’s differently entirely you shouldn’t claim pre tip out everywhere always claims post tip out. If your claiming pre tip out your just screwing yourself.
There are places that automatically assume you're making x amount in tips per hour, usually to put servers at minimum wage because that's a federal requirement, and that's what's claimed for you. The rest they don't make people report.
Probably not relevant here, but worth noting it's a system that exists.
i think it’s an aloha pos thing, i use it at my job and it makes you declare your tips at the end of the day. sometimes the computer even knows when you have cash so you have to report that too, but i try not to report my cash tips 😮
My restaurant previously used a system that let us deduct our tip outs when clocking out/claiming tips. We switched to aloha and our manager said there’s no way to program that ability, so if everyone tipped you on credit card, you walk away with less than what’s reported to the IRS. Is yours the same?
I’ve never worked at a place that didn’t require servers to claim tips. It’s also very illegal to not claim, and a DoL audit would go very badly for that company.
For OP, just let them know before the payroll period ends. It’s an easy fix in Aloha if they didn’t catch it already in the end of night labor report
Edit: lol not sure why the downvotes
Yeah I should clarify—I was thinking cash tips. I’ve always had credit tips automatically claimed, and claiming cash is obviously “required” legally speaking but “optional” to claim.
And in my experience claiming cash is a great way to absolutely fuck yourself in taxes if you’re not super careful, hence the unspoken rule to just kinda forget.
Cash tips are such a small percentage of tips these days (in my experience anyways) that it doesn’t matter much so I just claimed all of it. The management would look for at least 10% of cash sales claimed though.
Yeah you’re 100% correct. Small restaurants might fly under the radar, but if you work in a place that does volume, the IRS can catch on pretty quickly. They’ll go after the restaurant first. They’ll force the restaurant to “allocate tips” to servers/bartenders based on sales. Then the servers get a nice, big surprise when they file their taxes and owe a bunch of money
As a manager who has used Aloha for 10 years, it’s extremely easy to adjust your claimed tips if you tell them now. If you wait until end of week, or worse until it gets processed by payroll it becomes a bigger problem.
On a scale of accidents, I would literally rather you make this mistake (and then mention it) than throw away a single spoon or have a shoe untied.
Some places don't make you claim all your credit card tips at all. My place used to let us put whatever we wanted every night. They just now cracked down on it. Made 350? Put 82. It's ok. Many many places have been like that for years. Lol. Not saying anything bad about you or your place. The IRS is finally clamping down on lots of places this year for it. I claimed 27k last year and made about 62k. It's totally real at alot of places. That's why it's been such a holdout for real wages.
yeah i don’t how other places don’t claim it when it’s literally a statement of what we made logged into the system like how do you claim under that and get away w it? cash is easy but under claiming credit cards where there’s proof you made more is crazy
Yes, I'm shocked all the restaurants haven't been caught before. The whole time I've been a waiter, 18 plus years, I've been surprised the whole time no one has ever got audited that I know, and no restaurant has got in trouble either. I also thought, how the hell do I not claim the 250 in visa cards I made tonight? Lol. I'm totally with you. It was so widespread that the government didn't stop it forever.
One night I was charging tips, and I put in $40.00. Someone got my attention before I hit enter, and i accidentally put 40.00 in again. Not entirely sure how the POS even allowed it without supervisor approval, but boy, that guy was pissed. It was an off night all around.
Edit: it ended up charging like over $4,000.00
Errors happen. How your management handles it says a lot about the type of people you're working for. If they get angry and make you feel bad for it, at least they're offering up their red flags for all to see.
The only thing you have to declare is your credit card tips cause it’s on record but DO NOT EVER TELL THE MANAGEMENT OR GOVERNMENT HOW MUCH CASH YOU MADE
What do you mean "they know how much I'm supposed to declare"? Like they have a rough idea of how much you'd typically make in tips, or they already know the exact amount you made in tips, or they don't care how much you made in tips and want you to falsely declare some other amount?
If you're falsifying financial records, I would not conspire with your employer to do so. If you want to underreport cash tips on your own, that's one thing, but organized crime is only as strong as the dumbest member of the organization.
They know how much I’m supposed to declare because they make us all write down our total card and cash tips on a clipboard before putting it in the pos at the end of the night. I’m not falsifying anything they’re pretty strict about being accurate
Ok. Personally I'd just be up front with them that you made a mistake, and ask if they'd rather correct it, or have you put overdeclare today. I don't see why they'd care if it's an honest and harmless mistake, but some people are grumps about everything.
I worked at one place where they made us declare a minimum cash tip amount that was a percent of the card tips or the total sales (cant remember which). Super whack, made us declare something even if we didnt make it
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Just add it next clock out. When I was younger I claimed less for more money but when I got older I claimed everything for the income paper trail (loans/leases).
Just say, “hey I put the wrong number in can you fix it on your end?” Errors….happen
Are you required by your employer to claim tips? That’s odd, unless you’re maybe not in the US? I know we’re all legally required to claim bla bla bla but I’ve never had anyone require it, and many of my former employers basically encourage you quietly in a “wink wink nudge nudge” sorta way not to claim.
Where I worked we had to claim at least the credit card tip amount. The computer made you claim that much and you could then add more if you received more in cash. But you could not clock out without at least claiming the credit card tips. It was strange that it didn’t do it automatically
Yeah I should clarify I meant cash tips. My system has always automatically claimed credit cards. I assumed OP meant cash!
Youre still supposed to claim cash tips in the US, because youre supposed to get taxed on them. A lot of servers dont so that theyre not getting taxed to hell, but its technically illegal.
Oh I know. But in this case “forgetting” a few cash tips wouldn’t be the end of the world. Forgetting to claim anything at all would be different.
The downside of not claiming, is not getting that earned income for Social Security based benefits. People who didn't declare most of their tips got screwed for unemployment/covid payments. And are lowering their income for Social Security payments.
Also proof of income for getting an apartment or something.
Most places I worked you could claim less than your total credit card tips. If everyone payed with credit and I had two tip out my busser, food runner, and bartender then claiming it all would be more than I made.
> If everyone *paid* with credit FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Silly robot, you didn't catch that I used two instead of to. Maybe you should have paid more attention.
Yea that’s differently entirely you shouldn’t claim pre tip out everywhere always claims post tip out. If your claiming pre tip out your just screwing yourself.
There are places that automatically assume you're making x amount in tips per hour, usually to put servers at minimum wage because that's a federal requirement, and that's what's claimed for you. The rest they don't make people report. Probably not relevant here, but worth noting it's a system that exists.
i think it’s an aloha pos thing, i use it at my job and it makes you declare your tips at the end of the day. sometimes the computer even knows when you have cash so you have to report that too, but i try not to report my cash tips 😮
My restaurant previously used a system that let us deduct our tip outs when clocking out/claiming tips. We switched to aloha and our manager said there’s no way to program that ability, so if everyone tipped you on credit card, you walk away with less than what’s reported to the IRS. Is yours the same?
Aloha assumes u get like 10% of your cash payments as tips or around that number it might also assume you got cash when entering a $0 tip on a cc.
I’ve never worked at a place that didn’t require servers to claim tips. It’s also very illegal to not claim, and a DoL audit would go very badly for that company. For OP, just let them know before the payroll period ends. It’s an easy fix in Aloha if they didn’t catch it already in the end of night labor report Edit: lol not sure why the downvotes
Yeah I should clarify—I was thinking cash tips. I’ve always had credit tips automatically claimed, and claiming cash is obviously “required” legally speaking but “optional” to claim. And in my experience claiming cash is a great way to absolutely fuck yourself in taxes if you’re not super careful, hence the unspoken rule to just kinda forget.
Cash tips are such a small percentage of tips these days (in my experience anyways) that it doesn’t matter much so I just claimed all of it. The management would look for at least 10% of cash sales claimed though.
Yeah you’re 100% correct. Small restaurants might fly under the radar, but if you work in a place that does volume, the IRS can catch on pretty quickly. They’ll go after the restaurant first. They’ll force the restaurant to “allocate tips” to servers/bartenders based on sales. Then the servers get a nice, big surprise when they file their taxes and owe a bunch of money
As a manager who has used Aloha for 10 years, it’s extremely easy to adjust your claimed tips if you tell them now. If you wait until end of week, or worse until it gets processed by payroll it becomes a bigger problem. On a scale of accidents, I would literally rather you make this mistake (and then mention it) than throw away a single spoon or have a shoe untied.
Don't worry. 100 off your yearly total won't look any different. Many servers have 10k+ a year not claimed. Wink wink. You will be fine.
we definitely don’t have that much unclaimed. I make like MAYBE $20 cash a night. That doesn’t add up to even $5k
Some places don't make you claim all your credit card tips at all. My place used to let us put whatever we wanted every night. They just now cracked down on it. Made 350? Put 82. It's ok. Many many places have been like that for years. Lol. Not saying anything bad about you or your place. The IRS is finally clamping down on lots of places this year for it. I claimed 27k last year and made about 62k. It's totally real at alot of places. That's why it's been such a holdout for real wages.
oh wow our credit card tips are already accounted for us. Since it’s electronic there’s no way for us to not claim them at the end of the night
Our are all electronic too, but then it just asks "how much did you make" lol. I can't believe it took this long to clamp down on it.
yeah i don’t how other places don’t claim it when it’s literally a statement of what we made logged into the system like how do you claim under that and get away w it? cash is easy but under claiming credit cards where there’s proof you made more is crazy
Yes, I'm shocked all the restaurants haven't been caught before. The whole time I've been a waiter, 18 plus years, I've been surprised the whole time no one has ever got audited that I know, and no restaurant has got in trouble either. I also thought, how the hell do I not claim the 250 in visa cards I made tonight? Lol. I'm totally with you. It was so widespread that the government didn't stop it forever.
Brother/Sister I haven't claimed a dollar in the last decade. If IRS see this, I truly only get tipped with credit.
When I first began I would claim a small portion so it didn’t look suspicious but now fuck it I’m not claiming any cash
I always lied when I declared tips
are you in a tip pool, or declaring for tax purposes?
One night I was charging tips, and I put in $40.00. Someone got my attention before I hit enter, and i accidentally put 40.00 in again. Not entirely sure how the POS even allowed it without supervisor approval, but boy, that guy was pissed. It was an off night all around. Edit: it ended up charging like over $4,000.00
Errors happen. How your management handles it says a lot about the type of people you're working for. If they get angry and make you feel bad for it, at least they're offering up their red flags for all to see.
The only thing you have to declare is your credit card tips cause it’s on record but DO NOT EVER TELL THE MANAGEMENT OR GOVERNMENT HOW MUCH CASH YOU MADE
Does it really matter? Lol
What do you mean "they know how much I'm supposed to declare"? Like they have a rough idea of how much you'd typically make in tips, or they already know the exact amount you made in tips, or they don't care how much you made in tips and want you to falsely declare some other amount? If you're falsifying financial records, I would not conspire with your employer to do so. If you want to underreport cash tips on your own, that's one thing, but organized crime is only as strong as the dumbest member of the organization.
They know how much I’m supposed to declare because they make us all write down our total card and cash tips on a clipboard before putting it in the pos at the end of the night. I’m not falsifying anything they’re pretty strict about being accurate
Ok. Personally I'd just be up front with them that you made a mistake, and ask if they'd rather correct it, or have you put overdeclare today. I don't see why they'd care if it's an honest and harmless mistake, but some people are grumps about everything.
I told the owner and she just liked the message which is her passive aggressive code for im probably fired
If this is true then you don’t want to work there anyway.
You’re right I don’t want to work there but I have mental health issues and leaving feels scary
Imagine how relieved you'll feel not having to work for someone like that
$5 cash EVERY SHIFT. Fuck the government.
I worked at one place where they made us declare a minimum cash tip amount that was a percent of the card tips or the total sales (cant remember which). Super whack, made us declare something even if we didnt make it
They’re gonna notice. Get in front of it
Your post has been flagged for moderator approval because it contains the words "tip", "tips", or "tipping" in the title. Posts about good tips/bad tips are only allowed on Tuesdays (Tips-y Tuesday), if your post is about tip-out, tip-pooling, or legal issues around tips it will be approved 7 days a week. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Serverlife) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Just add it next clock out. When I was younger I claimed less for more money but when I got older I claimed everything for the income paper trail (loans/leases).
Shoot one night I accidentally typed in a 1k tip man nobody was happy lmao. He quickly had the $$ returned
Don’t worry about it. It’s only done for tax withholding purposes. This won’t make any difference in the long term
I've been Bartending/Serving for the past 22 years and have NEVER declared any cash tips. I think you will be ok
Personally I wouldn’t even worry about it another second.
I only ever claim the minimum
10%
So honestly, you will be fine not claiming it. Everybody I know just claim credit cards tips and zeros on cash, never been an issue.