There is tax on tips. Only how to settle it?

Tips are income. From the employment contract or from other sources? It depends whether they are separated by the employer or immediately go to the waiter. Restaurants prefer a second variant, because they have no additional obligations – informs “Rzeczpospolita” in Tuesday's edition.

As the newspaper indicates, the tips in cash are a thing of the past, customers are increasingly paying them by card, using special applications or QR codes.

“Such tips cannot be hidden from the tax office. There is always a trace of them in the papers. And there is no doubt that the tip is a waiter's income from which she deserves tax,” said Rzeczpospolita Dr. Piotr Sekulski, a tax advisor at the Outsourced.pl office.

“Rz” points out that this is the case from the interpretation, this is also confirmed by the courts. On the other hand, dilemmas appear when qualifying a tip to a specific source of income – whether it is income from an employment relationship (or order) or from the so -called other sources.

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The editors notes that the method of settling the gratification depends on the answer to this question. “The differences are considerable. Revenues from work and orders are settled by the payer (employer or client). He must add a tip to the basic salary, count the income and collect, and then pay to the office an advance payment at PIT. After the end of the year, he sends the treasury and the waiter information PIT-11”-reads.

However, the payer does not have these obligations if we qualify for revenues from other sources. Then the waiter accounts for them. He shows income in an annual testimony, adds to others, calculates income and pays tax. “In both variants, the tax is settled according to the scale. It is therefore 12 or 32 percent,” explains Piotr Sekulski.

However, it draws attention to one more important difference. If the tip is income from an employment relationship, you should deduct ZUS contributions from it. It will be similar with the order, unless the waiter (e.g. a student up to 26 years old) is released from them. However, revenues from other sources are not accumulated. The expert added that if we qualify a tip for revenues from other sources, i.e. without ZUS contributions, the tax amount will come out higher (there is a higher tax base, because we do not deduct contributions), but the waiter will get more on hand. However, he will not benefit from the PIT exemption for young people (up to 26 years old), because it is assigned to revenues from work and orders.

“Rzeczpospolita” indicates that the general rule is – if the donations accumulates the restaurant and then separates them into waiters, they constitute income from work/order. If the tip is transferred directly to the waiter, we include it as revenues from other sources. This rule also applies to mobile payments. (PAP)

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