Are You Supposed to Tip on the Tax? Even Diners and Servers Don’t Agree

Traditional etiquette recommends calculating restaurant tips before sales tax, but some diners and servers prefer tipping on the full bill. Digital payment screens can use either calculation, making it worth checking the suggested dollar amounts before paying. Trong Nguyen/Shutterstock

You’ve finished dinner, the server brings your check, and everything looks fine until you reach the suggested tip amounts at the bottom. The restaurant recommends 18%, 20%, or 22%, but something about the math doesn’t add up. Then you realize those percentages may have been calculated using the total after sales tax rather than the actual cost of your meal.

It’s a surprisingly divisive question: Should you tip before or after tax? Some diners believe tipping on sales tax means paying extra for something that has nothing to do with service, while others consider the difference too small to worry about. Even restaurant workers have different opinions, and modern payment systems have made the issue more confusing than ever.