Peter wrote:
>Christ on crutches, this myth that waiters pay tax on tips they do not
>receive is put BS. It is something that is spread by people who are ignorant
>of the tax code and also by waiters who are trying to squeeze money in tips
>they do not deserve.

You're half right.

In many chain restaurants (which this wasn't, apparently), owners are
exempt from paying servers minimum wage. When I was a manager at Pizza
Hut, we paid servers $2.15 an hour, assuming that their tips would make
up the remaining $3 balance.

When they clocked out, servers were obligated to declare their tips:
they all knew what the minimum was they needed to declare and would
declare the minimum. Payroll taxes were then paid on this declared
minimum.

Now, as to higher-standard restaurants...servers are paid at least
minimum wage...but everything else is the same. Servers, in order to
clock out, must declare some amount of tips. Payroll taxes are based
on those amount of tips declared plus the hourly wage.

So...the server is probably not paying taxes on tips not received,
because servers know to declare the minimum tips needed to clock out -
and unless they're a horrible server, they should come out ahead.

That being said...Peter, I can only go back to the original post, which
said that the service was excellent, but the atmosphere was ruined by
something beyond the server's control. IMO, the server should have
been tipped...and the note left for the manager, with a follow-up call
to the owners.

Lisa Ann