No, I've seen that happen many times where the person collecting has to ask everyone to come up with extra money. I always pay the shortage out of my pocket when I am collecting.

Usually it happens when people from work get together for lunch and sometimes some people just leave their money and leave before the bill comes.

Most likely is a split bill - him paying for himself and his wife, with the rest divvyed up between the other diners.

Yess I thought the thread was going to be in relation to the mingy pastor.

The tax should be on the amount of food and drink. Not on the amount after the service charge. I've been in the restaurant business for years and any place that I have worked always taxed the bill before the service charge. In the UK the service charge does not necessarily go to the server, it can go to the restaurant. My friend who worked as a server in Ireland said she never got the service charge. The restaurant kept it, That's totally unfair. There are several reasons that the gratuity is added to large groups. Large groups tend to require more work, Take up the tables longer than several small parties and more often than not someone shorts the tip if the tab is split. Wherever I have worked the service charge goes to the server not the restaurant. I've been in the restaurant business about 30 years now.

I do pay tax on my tips. almost all of my tips are on credit cards which go into my paycheck and get taxed at about 28%. The credit card companies also charge a fee and some restaurants taken that out of the servers/bartenders tips as well. When I was a server I would much rather wait on several small tables than one large group. There is usually some smart ass in the group that loves to give you a hard time or change their order after it's been placed as well.

All tips need to be reported to the IRS as income and have been for well over a decade.

Well over! I've had to fill out tip declarations for over 20 years now. Most of the places I've worked put them directly in your paycheck .

I've always wondered why the tip amount depends on the value of the food rather than the quantity.

Does the server really deserve an extra dollar because he/she brought the steak to the table rather than the burger?

Right?! And if you want a nice bottle of wine you have to pay them more tip because obviously it's more difficult to open a more expensive bottle of wine than a cheap one...

I read that article as well, $9 in a busy restaurant, no way.

Often a good waitress will be the highest paid member of staff.

Men generally will just split a large group ticket, women want it down to the cent. One of the issues is that they then 'forget' tax and tip.

Managed to double post, so I will add that it does not surprise me that the holier than thou lot stiffed the waitress.

Many people who pay with CC, tip in cash. All wait staff prefer cash for obvious reasons.

Long time ago my business CPA told us that his highest rate of audits was on businesses with cash receipts involving tipping, sole proprietors claiming excessive home office deductions, and small businesses with high travel claims. He also said that the most likely reason for a restaurant/coffee shop to fail an audit was on underdeclared tips, and that in those cases it was the establishment that got the brunt of it, and the employee just got a slap on the wrist. God knows how they determine whether a server has been pocketing cash tips i/o declaring them...

You're not wrong there....I posted this in a thread last year:

"I can remember sitting in a booth in a very quiet Logans Roadhouse on Hwy 6 in West Houston, 10 years ago, a couple of weeks after we'd arrived. It was late, and in the booth behind us, 2 of the waitstaff going off duty and counting and comparing their tips. We calculated that excluding their wages, they'd made a little over $80 an hour. And that was on a very quiet night. "

$80 an hour, that would be excellent.

I have done tipped worked and averaged 20% plus.

If the tip goes on the CC there is a record, if the tip is cash then it tends to be shall I say rounded down, still needs to look doable.

My youngest was only 18 months at the time, and I have to say a (brief) "why bother with college?" look passed between my wife and I!

$80 an hour? How many hours did they say they worked? That seems a bit extreme. I know many people put down working in the restaurant industry but I have managed to do quite well in it and I actually enjoy it.