Posted On: Thursday - April 20th 2023 9:01AM MST
In Topics: Economics US Feral Government Customer Care
Besides being a continuation of this recent post, which itself came from reader comments under others, Peak Stupidity will continue to pound in the idea of cash being King.* That is, it's a powerful force, anyway, to combat a number of ills being brought upon the populations of the world's nation by their elite "leaders". (Why governments don't require bill serial number scanners at points-of-sale and banks is another story that I sure don't want any of you spreading around. Government workers are too busy watching porn to read Peak Stupidity, so we should be good.)
OK, then, I think most of us in tipping-custom countries understand the point already. I can only write about America here, what I know. I don't write as a lawyer or economist here, but I do know that the IRS laid down rules years ago, maybe the 1980's, maybe '90s to try to collect THEIR FAIR SHARE DUE of these ancillary payments for service that customers have been providing them based on merit. It's right there on that important box on thoser W-2 forms, "Wages, tips, etc." Over the years, coming under the 2nd item, that money that has been STOLEN, STOLEN, I tell you, from the US Feral Government! This became important at the time period in which credit cards, and later debit cards, came into widespread usage, the '70s through '80s. Before that, the IRS didn't have a fighting chance.
If you know much about the restaurant business, there is an exemption from paying the minimum wage to waiters/waitresses. That was due to the knowledge that they made money via tips, sometimes, in fancy places MUCH, MUCH more than that $2.65 or whatever no-better-in-real-dollars amount it is today, to where (in that case) the wages were peanuts compared to the tips. The IRS had left them alone for a long while. As I wrote above, there wasn't that much they could do, if tips were not recorded, if they were to be fair. Well, fairness goes out the window when you're going broke, so they had schemes to use average tips in the industry, or what-have-you.
I spent a few minutes looking into that older stuff, and lo and behold, look what's new! Only 2 months ago, a new program was introduced, as The Man himself, the IRS tells us:
The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service today issued Notice 2023-13, which contains a proposed revenue procedure that would establish the Service Industry Tip Compliance Agreement (SITCA) program, a voluntary tip reporting program between the IRS and employers in various service industries. The IRS is issuing this guidance in proposed form to provide an opportunity for public comment.Our betters, paid the big bucks to spend our money more wisely, DO NOT LIKE IT when we take it upon ourselves to pay people what WE PEONS think is appropriate for the effort they've made. At least, they want their cut. Don't let them take it. This one is easy.
The proposed SITCA program is designed to take advantage of advancements in point-of-sale, time and attendance systems, and electronic payment settlement methods to improve tip reporting compliance. The proposed program would also decrease taxpayer and IRS administrative burdens and provide more transparency and certainty to taxpayers. The proposed program includes several features: ... ["blah, blah, blah, I hear nothink, nothink! Your lips are moving, but there's nothing coming out." - Waiters, waitresses, cab drivers, hair stylists everywhere and every one.]
Use cash for the tip, even if you don't have enough cash for the meal, haircut, taxi ride, etc. (In fact, with the Lyft and Uber drivers, this avoids not only the IRS but the take from Lyft/Uber too, however you feel about the latter aspect.) When the waitress comes out with that annoying and embarrassing tablet or other piece of iCrap, I'll let her know the tip will be cash or just give it to her directly then and there. At the counter, I'll write "table" on the receipt tip line and then leave it. It's important to note that, just in case someone else swipes it later - hopefully a rare thing still - or someone thinks she has been stiffed before figuring it out.
On that recent trip we made to that nice Conservative Florida town I hadn't brung enough cash for everything. I used cash for all tips, which added up to a decent amount. There was to be a charge for the use of my debit card, so I wrote the proprietor a check. Yeah, that charge would have been peanuts in the scheme of a vacation trip when tourists somehow just naturally throw around money in a way they wouldn't at home - see The tourist dollar and funny money for the foreign tourist version.
This new deal of charging fees on the use of cc's** - I've reported on it regarding this practice at gas stations for at least 5 years here - is a good thing! For the little bit of extra trouble, such as at the gas stations***, it's encouraging the use of cash.
If the young people doing these service jobs are still a bit clueless on it, we can teach them a thing about taxes, money handling, and economics. "Yeah, man, I don't want you to have to share this with the US Government. You know they aren't gonna spend it on you or your family, right?" Then, with more cash in hand, this guy will get used to having more than cards in his wallet to work with. Spread the cash love! Regarding the tax man, Plausible Deniability, Bitchez!
* See Chipotle - no credit, no debit, and hold the E. Coli, Cash is King - (Part 2), Cash is King - (Part 3), Credit? Forget it! You got it? You get it!, and there's more around here somewhere.
** Which is fair enough, as the merchant pays these fees to Visa, Amex, etc. I don't feel the need to support credit card users.
*** As shoddy as things are getting, half the time a receipt won't print out at the pump when you use a card, as it's out of paper. The single cashier they've got all day can't go out there to refill them. So you go inside anyway.
When you fill up using cash, then it takes 2 trips. Why not just pay enough to get it close, you ask? Well, when you have a car with no working trip odometer (that's been 2 decades) and a non-working gas gauge (gonna be a 4 hour job - gotta drop the tank to replace the float on this one), you need to know what you've got in there.
Comments:
SafeNow
Thursday - April 20th 2023 4:08PM MST
PS
I live close to the Asian Massage Parlor capital of The United States, and I have heard from friends that cash payment is a significant driver of our local economy. I refer not just to tips, but rather, the services themselves.
Btw, Mr. Moderator, I have made maybe 30 trips to Florida over the years, always staying away from the crowds. Usually August - - the 85-degree water! I tell my friends I am going on a “rafting vacation.” It’s funny to think
we might have gone to the same place, and on the nearby raft, you were the fellow I was chatting with.
I live close to the Asian Massage Parlor capital of The United States, and I have heard from friends that cash payment is a significant driver of our local economy. I refer not just to tips, but rather, the services themselves.
Btw, Mr. Moderator, I have made maybe 30 trips to Florida over the years, always staying away from the crowds. Usually August - - the 85-degree water! I tell my friends I am going on a “rafting vacation.” It’s funny to think
we might have gone to the same place, and on the nearby raft, you were the fellow I was chatting with.
Moderator
Thursday - April 20th 2023 1:28PM MST
PS: Mr. Hail, it is indeed to truly different world now and a shame for that.
I see the tipping options after the service though. Still, it's right in your face, fine if it was great service and you want to push that 25% button, but not fine is you are still there pressing 10% or less rather than being gone.
"They might do something to my sandwich NEXT TIME." is how I see it, as with that Chinatown story.
Agreed Possumman.
Alarmist, you have a good point with that "table" written for the record. I should rethink that. Thank you for more of the story on the old policies of the IRS.
That term "imputed income" is one that I'd thought about before writing this one and forgot to mention. Where I've seen it used too is with benefits from an employer that involve no money at all. Sometimes, it's no burden for the company, as it's part of the work and the opportunity cost may be low. Yet, the IRS wants whatever they can get their grubby imputing hands on.
Also, the example you wrote of reminds me of drink prices on airliners. When they were 4 bucks and cash was still taken, well there's a buck, or 25% for the (hopefully) young lady. Then at 5, whatddya do? Now they are up to 10 bucks. However, they won't take cash for the drink at this point. I won't use a cc and don't need the drink, but if I did, I guess that electronic device they use would have that tip option too. (I'm gonna find out.) I would tip in cash of course, but seriously, 10 bucks for a drink?
I see the tipping options after the service though. Still, it's right in your face, fine if it was great service and you want to push that 25% button, but not fine is you are still there pressing 10% or less rather than being gone.
"They might do something to my sandwich NEXT TIME." is how I see it, as with that Chinatown story.
Agreed Possumman.
Alarmist, you have a good point with that "table" written for the record. I should rethink that. Thank you for more of the story on the old policies of the IRS.
That term "imputed income" is one that I'd thought about before writing this one and forgot to mention. Where I've seen it used too is with benefits from an employer that involve no money at all. Sometimes, it's no burden for the company, as it's part of the work and the opportunity cost may be low. Yet, the IRS wants whatever they can get their grubby imputing hands on.
Also, the example you wrote of reminds me of drink prices on airliners. When they were 4 bucks and cash was still taken, well there's a buck, or 25% for the (hopefully) young lady. Then at 5, whatddya do? Now they are up to 10 bucks. However, they won't take cash for the drink at this point. I won't use a cc and don't need the drink, but if I did, I guess that electronic device they use would have that tip option too. (I'm gonna find out.) I would tip in cash of course, but seriously, 10 bucks for a drink?
The Alarmist
Thursday - April 20th 2023 12:29PM MST
PS
I started using what we do in Europe, which is telling the waitperson how much change you want back from the cash handed to them ... you’d be surprised how many Americans don’t get it.
I wouldn’t write ‘table’ on the slip; that makes it exhibit one for the prosecution. Better to just draw a line and put the burden on the prosecution to prove any tip at all was in the transaction.
The whole thing started out, as so many “voluntary” aspects of the US tax regime, with the expectation that waitstaff who were in traditionally tip-oriented jobs would voluntarily report their tips. When Uncle sugar realized that many of these poor schlubs weren’t volunteering the info, he leaned on their employers to supervise the completion of tip booklets by employees, which were then used by the employer to report tips on the W-2. When it became clear that the employees might still be under-reporting tip income, Uncle Sugar told employers to impute a minimum level of tips anyway, e.g. 8%.
There are places where you might not get 8%. I knew a bar manager who priced drinks at $4.95, not thinking that most customers would drop the nickel into the tip jar. I suggested she price at $4.25 and give the waitstaff a fraction of the action instead of leaving them stiffed and pissed. But she didn’t hesitate before that to imput and report the 8% when they were getting far less.
Uncle Sugar loves CC tips, because it is crystal clear how much is changing hands.
Resist ... Pay Cash if you can, tip cash always.
🕉
I started using what we do in Europe, which is telling the waitperson how much change you want back from the cash handed to them ... you’d be surprised how many Americans don’t get it.
I wouldn’t write ‘table’ on the slip; that makes it exhibit one for the prosecution. Better to just draw a line and put the burden on the prosecution to prove any tip at all was in the transaction.
The whole thing started out, as so many “voluntary” aspects of the US tax regime, with the expectation that waitstaff who were in traditionally tip-oriented jobs would voluntarily report their tips. When Uncle sugar realized that many of these poor schlubs weren’t volunteering the info, he leaned on their employers to supervise the completion of tip booklets by employees, which were then used by the employer to report tips on the W-2. When it became clear that the employees might still be under-reporting tip income, Uncle Sugar told employers to impute a minimum level of tips anyway, e.g. 8%.
There are places where you might not get 8%. I knew a bar manager who priced drinks at $4.95, not thinking that most customers would drop the nickel into the tip jar. I suggested she price at $4.25 and give the waitstaff a fraction of the action instead of leaving them stiffed and pissed. But she didn’t hesitate before that to imput and report the 8% when they were getting far less.
Uncle Sugar loves CC tips, because it is crystal clear how much is changing hands.
Resist ... Pay Cash if you can, tip cash always.
🕉
possumman
Thursday - April 20th 2023 12:29PM MST
PS We almost always leave cash tips--waitress is far more likely to get all of it that way and they can just stick it in their pocket
Hail
Thursday - April 20th 2023 10:15AM MST
PS
The custom of leaving a cash tip on the table, upon leaving, seems quaint. I mean within the new norms many people have of compartmentalizing their lives via digital-mediums, amid an anonymous, high(er)-crime environment, Mandatory Diversity, and other cultural changes.
The cash-on-the-table tip is a sociological-meaning-laden action. With the new mode of (so-called) "tipping" you often see, involving up-front payment -- someone glaring at you while you stare at the "tipping option buttons" BEFORE your item or service is given -- it turns into a different action entirely than the cash-on-the-table custom. The person knows exactly what you've paid ("tipped") before the service or goods are exchanged, versus the entire thing being after-the-fact with the cash-on-table picked up after you're long gone in the former custom.
The new version feels more like bribery to me. Or extortion: "If I press 'No Tip,' they might 'do something' to my sandwich," is probably a normal thought. (Oh, cruel world.)
The custom of leaving a cash tip on the table, upon leaving, seems quaint. I mean within the new norms many people have of compartmentalizing their lives via digital-mediums, amid an anonymous, high(er)-crime environment, Mandatory Diversity, and other cultural changes.
The cash-on-the-table tip is a sociological-meaning-laden action. With the new mode of (so-called) "tipping" you often see, involving up-front payment -- someone glaring at you while you stare at the "tipping option buttons" BEFORE your item or service is given -- it turns into a different action entirely than the cash-on-the-table custom. The person knows exactly what you've paid ("tipped") before the service or goods are exchanged, versus the entire thing being after-the-fact with the cash-on-table picked up after you're long gone in the former custom.
The new version feels more like bribery to me. Or extortion: "If I press 'No Tip,' they might 'do something' to my sandwich," is probably a normal thought. (Oh, cruel world.)
I don't mind 85 F water myself, but I haven't been on the west coast of Florida that many times to have likely been in the same place. Have a nice evening, SafeNow.