@EllisDee, are you sure most people do this? I tip on the bill generally, which includes the taxes. Let’s take this to another thread though, tipping is usually the kind of post that hijacks threads.
I understand some people don’t tip on cocktails, wine & beer on a dinner bill. I’m not even sure what the logic is for that.
You could probably do a poll on this. I tip on the total for sure, but when I was taught how to tip in the 90s it was on the subtotal before taxes. I just never really did it that way because I never needed to pinch pennies like that. Consider it a little bit extra than whatever percentage you were shooting for and call it good.
The Seinfeld episode where Jerry gives his dad a Wizard organizer and all he uses it for is calculating tips, I figured that was supposed to be funny because that was the last generation who cared to tip down to the penny. But George was also portrayed as cheap, so maybe it was passed on to some boomers.
As for drinks, the only way I wouldn’t tip on drinks is if I was tipping the bar staff separately.
I don’t usually tip on the price including tax - but I suspect that that’s related to tipping a multiple of the tax . If I double an almost 9% sales tax , that’s a tip of almost 18% of the price of the food but a bit less as a percentage of the total. I don’t do it down to the penny, but it’s just easier to double the tax and round up than to figure out a specific percentage of $24.73 including tax and then rounding up.
I was going to say I always tip on the grand total, but I seem to recall a time or two, on the rare occasions we ate at a super swanky place, and we ordered a couple of bottles of $200 wine (an even rarer occasion) that I made some kind of adjustment that ratcheted down the tip a bit.
But 99.9% of the time, I tip on the grand total and don’t worry about taxes or drinks. I generally do the quick 10% calc (easy!) double it, and round up to a round $10 amount. I think waitstaff deserve to get a good tip and it would take outright rudeness to tip under 20%.
Well I definitely don’t tip on tax, that’s crazy talk.
I also don’t tip on all those covid fees that got added to bills. Like you’ll see a service fee that says “this is not a tip.” I definitely don’t tip on that service fee.
I don’t consider tipping to be an exact science, and it usually doesn’t make enough of a difference to worry about. But I don’t feel obligated to tip on taxes or fees.
In a sit-down restaurant, I tip on the total, and always 20%. If I pick up a pizza, since I had to drive there to get it, and they are simply handing it to me, I might throw a buck into the tip jar but not more than that.
“Proper” etiquette, like from Emily Post or whatever, says that you do not tip on tax.
That said, I have a similar reaction to you when it comes to tipping on drinks. I always tip on drinks. It would never occur to me to not tip on alcoholic drinks. The sole exception is if I’m sitting at a bar and I know that the owner of the bar is the one who is serving me. You don’t tip bar owners.
I tip 20% for services rendered. (Except my barber. I tip him 25%.) Collecting sales tax for the state is not a service rendered. I also do not tip on service charges, because fuck that shit. Tipping culture is way out of control at this point.
When it comes to the mechanics of actually figuring it out, there is no difference between calculating a tip on the subtotal versus the grand total. You are still calculating a tip based on a single number.
Often when we are in the US, if it is just hubby and me, we’ll share an appetizer, main dish, and maybe a dessert. So our total bill is a bit lower than a typical bill for 2 people. We tip based on the total with the tax. Same if there’s alcohol. Either way, we tend to tip on the high side.
Sales tax can be different even in different municipalities in the same county. How do you write an ad that says “Buy our product for only $10, at any of our twenty convenient locations”, if every one of those twenty locations has a different sales tax rate?
California, for one. I can think of at least 4 different tax rates (varying city taxes) in my county. Granted, it’s the largest county in the country by area, but still. In SoCal you can cross county lines/city limits just by shopping on the other side of the street.
NJ doesn’t even allow municipal sales tax so it seem extra weird to me.
We have State Sales Tax and a few places are so poor, that to encourage merchants, they have a 3.3125% sales tax instead of the 6.625% state one.
These are called Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) and cities/towns like Asbury Park, Camden, Jersey City & Newark. We have 37 in all it appears. Cars and some other big ticket items are not eligible for the UEZs.
BTW: In general unprepared food & non-luxury clothing are not taxed in NJ.