[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

So which are the deserving category of workers that should get a tax break and which are the ones that don’t deserve the tax break?

That decision was political.

If you go to California do you tip less?

When in Rome…

[Aces4]

Originally Posted by fdpaq0580

No surprise here. My focus is not on the waitstaff. It's the customer position.
The customer pays a price, part of which goes to cover employee pay. So, waiter gets a cut. Tax is added. The comes the tip. Now the wait person has an opportunity to dramatically increase their "cut" through sweet talking, cajoling, persuasion, etc. Pitty the poor server. A good actor can make a lot more than a bad actor. If it wasn't for tipping, restaurants would be paying more tax. Servers would be tax liable for all their income. Customers wouldn't have to figure the appropriate cost of being called "Hon". He/she ain't your friend. It's about getting the biggest present they can from you. It's a con, a game, a scam, that we all play. But it isn't an honest hourly wage for labor. Restaurant owners are complicit in this for their own reasons.
Tonight's nice dinner out and the waitress pocketed $20+, on top of her regular pay, for the 10 minutes that she spent on us.

Eat at home, problem solved.

[Aces4]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

I was a salaried worker. I never negotiated the terms of my employment and to my knowledge, no one at my level did. I think senior vice presidents and above did that.

And I worked overtime most weeks - I just didn’t get paid for it.

Under the working conditions I described? Our children are salaried too but if they aren't salaried enough for their efforts, they would change jobs and do just fine.

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

That decision was political.

I think every bill passed by congress is political.

But if you could make the decision, which group of workers should get the tax break? Explain how you reached your conclusion.

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by Aces4

Under the working conditions I described? Our children are salaried too but if they aren't salaried enough for their efforts, they would change jobs and do just fine.

You say that if your children aren’t salaried enough for their efforts they would change jobs and do just fine.

Doesn’t that same rationale apply to the person working in a factory which runs about 100 degrees on a summer day, lifting product, running presses?

And to answer your question, my working conditions were not that bad. But I don't think the tax benefits for overtime are limited to workers with those conditions.

Many government employees get overtime. This includes transit workers, the post office, TSA, VA, CPB, and FEMA. Most of those jobs are hard to get. And the people that I know that work in those areas usually want overtime.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

You say that if your children aren’t salaried enough for their efforts they would change jobs and do just fine.

Doesn’t that same rationale apply to the person working in a factory which runs about 100 degrees on a summer day, lifting product, running presses?

And to answer your question, my working conditions were not that bad. But I don't think the tax benefits for overtime are limited to workers with those conditions.

Many government employees get overtime. This includes transit workers, the post office, TSA, VA, CPB, and FEMA. Most of those jobs are hard to get. And the people that I know that work in those areas usually want overtime.

Regarding your last paragraph, ALL Federal employees who work on the GS pay scale are actually hourly workers. Their annual pay is based on 40 hours per week, and it is illegal to require additional work without paying them overtime if they file for it. This even includes GS-15 white collar employees who are at the top of the Government pay scale. As an Inspector General, I handled several cases of this, and the department head was sometimes surprised that they could only require their top managers to work 40 hours per week. This is a huge difference from the private sector.

[Normal]

By far the most irritating and undeserving tipping situation is when I pick up a pizza. I see zero need to place money in a tip/handout jar for a “to-go” order I placed on the phone and picked up myself. The “icing on the cake” is when I charge for the pizza and the receipt has a tip/gratuity line to fill in!

Tipping needs to be a thing of the past. In Europe no one tips, it seems to be more an American thing.

[Kelevision]

Originally Posted by stratmax

Have you noticed the food prices in restaurants have gone up dramatically. I'm not sure everybody knows this but last fall, 2024. Florida enacted a law mandating restaurants pay a base wage of $9.98 to their wait staff and a guarantee of $13/hour when combined with the tips.The law gave restaurants time to change their menu prices so they could pay the base wage.
So, why are we continuing to pay 20% tip when there is already a built in tip in the menu prices?
NOTE: the base wage is also going to go up to $10.98 this fall

It’s not built in. Is it a mandate that all old people start complaining about the price of things? Did you not plan correctly? You want to go out, have someone wait on you and not tip them for doing that? That’s not how life works. You get what you pay for. They have plenty of places for you to eat where you don’t have a server to tip. Go there and stop griping about tipping. The fact you think 13 dollars an hour is enough to live on makes me very curious about your age and where you came from. Jeez. 30 dollars an hour isn’t enough to live on in this time.

[Aces4]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

You say that if your children aren’t salaried enough for their efforts they would change jobs and do just fine.

Doesn’t that same rationale apply to the person working in a factory which runs about 100 degrees on a summer day, lifting product, running presses?

And to answer your question, my working conditions were not that bad. But I don't think the tax benefits for overtime are limited to workers with those conditions.

Many government employees get overtime. This includes transit workers, the post office, TSA, VA, CPB, and FEMA. Most of those jobs are hard to get. And the people that I know that work in those areas usually want overtime.

Most overtime jobs are those in the manual labor and not pencil pushers. Yes, I am indicating that those in higher paying jobs have more opportunity than a factory worker for job shopping. The limit for overtime tax free is $12,500. That can mean the difference between self-supporting or living off the government (us).

[fdpaq0580]

Originally Posted by Aces4

Eat at home, problem solved.

No! The problem still exists, whether I participate or not.

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

I handled several cases of this, and the department head was sometimes surprised that they could only require their top managers to work 40 hours per week. This is a huge difference from the private sector.

I did not know that!!

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

You can spend a lot of space working math problems but that doesn’t change the fact that this deduction, only available to some tipped workers, will exempt the first $25,000 in tips from federal income tax.

Yes it will. I'm not challenging that assertion. I'm challenging the assertion that it is - specifically - "no tax on tips." That's the topic of this thread, that's what everyone is commenting about.

It isn't "no tax on tips." It's "deduction on SOME tips." Words have meanings.

Seniors have deductions that younger people don't have. Veterans get tax breaks that non-veterans don't get. Rich people get tons more deductions than poorer people get, and some of them can deduct so much, that the tax they pay to the IRS ends up being LESS than what some poor people pay.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

It isn't "no tax on tips." It's "deduction on SOME tips." Words have meanings.

Words have meanings. The words “all” or “any” would indicate a 100% deduction. Those words were not used.

Note: I stopped reading anything into campaign promises after the "Read my lips" incident.

[bopat]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

Is every job supposed to have a living wage?

Including part time and starting jobs?

Or are some jobs not meant to be careers?

I remember when waiters and waitresses were kids going to school or older people supplementing their income.

[Pugchief]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

I think every bill passed by congress is political.

But if you could make the decision, which group of workers should get the tax break? Explain how you reached your conclusion.

The group of workers that should get the tax break is NO ONE or EVERYONE. Special carveouts always backfire.

The tax break that should be given, if one must, is to eliminate the tax on long term capital gains after changing the definition of "long term" to at least 2 or 3 years instead of 1. Much of what is being taxed is the unrealized inflation rate applied to the asset, which is ridiculous. Of course, this will never happen, bc then certain people would be screaming that it's a tax break for "the rich".