Guides
Straight answers on the money questions tipped workers actually ask.
Tips and taxes
What you owe, what to report, and what to set aside.
Are tips taxable?
The short answer is yes — cash included. What you owe, what gets withheld, and what you have to report.
How much to save for taxes on tips
A simple rule of thumb, plus how to get a closer number for your state.
No Tax on Tips, explained
What the 2025–2028 federal tips deduction actually does, the $25k cap, and the phase-out.
Reporting tips to your employer
The $20 rule, the monthly deadline, Form 4070, and what happens to tips you never reported.
Tip income and your W-2
What the boxes mean, allocated tips, Form 4137, and why your own log wins.
Tip-outs and tip pools
How the split works, and who is legally allowed a share.
How tip-outs work
What a tip-out is, how it is calculated, how much to tip out, and what you actually keep.
Tip pooling: how it works and who can be included
How tip pools are split, who can legally be in one, and how tip sharing differs from pooling.
Tip pooling laws by state
The federal floor, then what each state’s tip credit rules mean for who can be in your pool.
What is a tip credit?
Why your cash wage can be $2.13, how the credit is supposed to work, and where it is banned.
What tipped work pays
Honest ranges, and how to find your own real number.
How much do servers really make?
The honest ranges, why the posted wage means little, and how to find your own number.
How much do bartenders really make?
Bartender pay from dive to cocktail bar, what the barback split costs, and the number that settles it.
How to track cash tips
Why cash tips are easy to lose track of, and a system that takes 30 seconds.
Prefer to just get the number?
Every guide here has a free calculator behind it — tip-out, true hourly, tax set-aside, the tips deduction, and mileage.