At restaurants, do you calculate the tip before or after taxes?

Answer 1

Always before taxes. You do not tip on government taxes.

Answer 2

I usually calculate the tip before taxes. There are some restaurants that even give you the calculations of what 10%, 15%, and 20% would be.

Answer 3

Before taxes. Usually 15%.
Some restaurants automatically charge the tip if there is a large party. And if you use coupons or gift certificates, the tip should be calculated before the discount.

Answer 4

To play devil's advocate for the server: The "In America" comment was rude, yes. However, this kind of frustration builds up after years of serving where people from other countries (who may not be savvy to America's tipping policy) don't tip well at all. I worked in LA, where about a third of my tables were from other countries (British, Chinese, Mexican, etc.) and about 80% of the time I would get less than 10% tips from them, when Americans tipped me 20% on average. It makes you grumpy when you get a table of foreign people. It's not being racist, it's just basing it on experience. Second, people have started tipping on the total (including tax) so much that more and more restaurants have their servers "tip out" (give a portion of your tips to the bartenders, bussers, even cooks) based on TOTAL SALES including taxes. A 15% tip is bad enough without it being pre-tax. And about you being college students who can't afford to be generous, well there's a saying that servers have: If you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to eat out. Not to be mean, but I guarantee this is what your server was thinking. He might have had a bad day, too, and your table was the last straw. These things happen. And these other answers saying that 15% is a perfectly good tip, they obviously don't know how the restaurant industry works. For example, "AB"'s answer up there. It's ridiculous. If she has ever gone to the same restaurant twice after tipping the way she's explaining, she's lucky if multiple servers haven't sneezed in her food by now. Not tipping on alcohol drinks??? Of course you're supposed to! Take it from me, an actual server, who can't pay his college tuition if he gets 15% tips all day, and whose service to his tables is worth the 5 to 10 bucks on the average bill.

Answer 5

You calculate on the before tax figure

Answer 6

I usually look at the bill and tip them the same as the amount of taxes (15% in Canada) if I get a good service.

Answer 7

I always do a pre-tax calculation, not sure if that is right or not!

My reasoning is that they should get 20% of the bill & the goverment is adding a certain percentage on top of that (in ct 6%) so why should I pay even more?

Good Luck

Answer 8

I always calculate the tip based on the full bill (including taxes).

My tip calculations are based on the 'service scale' below:

0%=bad
10% or less=lacking
15%=normal service
20%=Better than expected
25%+ = Exceptional


Hope this helps!

Answer 9

After tax. Tip on total sales. Tip percentage being claimed is on total sales with the tax. If you have seen the percentage rates on a credit card slip its on the total bill.

Answer 10

You figure out the tip before taxes.