Reply to WARNING: Tipping traps – Suggested tips based on total after tax (not your food bill!)

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Reply to "WARNING: Tipping traps – Suggested tips based on total after tax (not your food bill!)"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]People like the OP make me crazy, because they are both cheap and bad at math.  Let's break this down:

- The tax on restaurant food and drink in Arlington totals 10% - the 6% regular sales tax and an extra 4% food and beverage tax.  
- Let's assume that the OP is tipping 20%, though I tend to doubt that.  
- Let's also assume that OP spent $100 pretax on her meal - a nice round number.  With tax, the meal was $110.  
- If she tipped on the the pretax total, she'd leave a tip of $20, and the total bill would be $130.  $100 + $20 + $10 = $130.  
- If the tipped on the after tax total, she'd leave a tip of $22, and the total bill would be $132.  $100 + $10 + $22 = $132.

That's right - there is 2% difference.  Assuming a 10% tax, if you tip on the after tax amount you will tip a whole $2 for every $100 you spend on food and drink.  If you go out for a very expensive meal and spend $500, tipping on the after tax amount will cost you an extra $10.

What I tell my daughter is look at total bill, move the decimal point, multiply by 2, and round up.  It's easy, and you don't out yourself as a pedantic weasel.

Finally, OP, you didn't "have to" manually edit the tip - you chose to, because, as I said above, you are cheap and bad at math.

[/quote]

I disagree.  This is about the Suggested Tip automatically put on the bill by the restaurant.  There is no reason that someone who lives in a low sales tax state should be suggested to leave less tip than someone in a high sales tax state.  [/quote]

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