Tip Income Reporting

Form 4070 - Employee Tip reporting to the Employer

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

If your employer does not give you any other way to report your tips, you can use Form 4070, Employee's Report of Tips to Employer. Fill in the information asked for on the form, sign and date the form, and give it to your employer.
Give your report for each month to your employer by the 10th of the next month. If the 10th falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, give your employer the report by the next day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.
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Tip Income Reporting

Tips of less than $20 a month

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

If you're total tips for any 1 month from any one job are less than $20, do not report the tips for that month to that employer.
Tips of less than $20 are not reportable to the employer and not subject to FICA tax But are subject to income tax.
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Tip Income Reporting

Tip Income - Employee Penalty for not reporting

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

If you do not report tips to your employer as required, you may be subject to a penalty equal to 50% of the social security and Medicare taxes or railroad retirement tax you owe on the unreported tips.
The penalty amount is in addition to the taxes you owe.
You can avoid this penalty if you can show reasonable cause for not reporting the tips to your employer.
To do so, attach a statement to your return explaining why you did not report them.
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Tip Income Reporting

Employer - Allocating Tip Income - Less than 8% Calculation Methods

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

If as the Employer, your total reported tips are less than 8% of total food and beverage sales, then you must allocate additional tip income to the W2 of every tipped employee that reported less than 8% of their respective sales, so that their total reported income reflects this minimum 8% allocation.
There are 3 methods of allocating additional employee tips. The gross receipts method, the hours worked method and the good faith agreement.
The Gross Receipts method can be used by any restaurant and usually results in a more accurate and fair allocation.
It determines the amount that each server should have reported in tips to reach the 8% minimum threshold by comparing the server’s gross receipts as a percentage of the total restaurant receipts.
If the server’s actual reported tips are less than the percentage calculated as above then a prorate portion of the total shortfall is allocated to that employees W2.
The Hours Worked method applies only to restaurants which employ fewer than 25 full time employees during a payroll period, and it allocates any tip shortfall (below 8% of total sales) by spreading it among underreporting servers based on their percentage of total hours worked as compared to all the other servers.
This method is the least accurate as it does not take into account the fact that servers work shifts with different tipping patterns.
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The Good Faith Agreement method is rarely used.
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Tip Income Reporting

Allocating Tips - 8% General rule

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

As an employer, you must ensure that the total tip income reported to you during any pay period is, at a minimum, equal to 8% of your total receipts for that period.
In calculating 8% of total receipts, you do not include nonallocable receipts. Nonallocable receipts are defined as receipts for carry out sales and receipts with a service charge added of 10% or more.
When the total reported to you is less than 8%, you must allocate the difference between the actual tip income reported and 8% of gross receipts.
Employers can request a lower rate (but not lower than 2%) for tip allocation purposes by submitting an application to the IRS.
Detailed instructions for computing allocation of tips, reporting allocated tips to employees, and for requesting a lower rate can be found in the Instructions for Form 8027. (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8027.pdf).
Speak to your local CPA about the requirements of Tip Income reporting.
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Fringe Benefits

Company planes

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

Employees who use company airplanes for personal trips are taxable on the value of the flights.
The value is calulated using IRS tables.
Speak to your local CPA about this calculation.
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Fringe Benefits

Chauffer services

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

If Chauffer services are provided for both personal and business purposes, the costs of the personal use are considered taxable income.
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Fringe Benefits

Company Car

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

The use of a company car is tax free to the extent you use the car for business.
If you use the vehicle for personal use your employer has the resposibility of calculating taxable income to you.
You are required to maintain records such as a mileage log to document and substantiate your business use.
You are not sunject to additional taxable income if your vehicle is considered a limited personal use vehicle.
Llimited personal use vehicles include garbage, dump, flatbed or refrigerated trucks, hearses or ambulances, one passenger delivery trucks, police, fire or public safety vehicles, school and passenger buses and farm vehicles
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Fringe Benefits

Employee Stock Options

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

The employer must report as income in Box 1 of Form W-2, (a) the discount portion of stock acquired by the exercise of an employee stock purchase plan option upon disposition of the stock, and (b) the spread (between the exercise price and the fair market value of the stock at the time of exercise) upon a disqualifying disposition of stock acquired by the exercise of an incentive stock option or an employee stock purchase plan option.
An employer must report the excess of the fair market value of stock received upon exercise of a nonstatutory stock option over the amount paid for the stock option on Form W-2 in boxes 1, 3 (up to the social security wage base), 5, and in box 12 using the code “V"
For more information about employee stock options, Speak to your local CPA or see sections 421, 422, and 423 of the Internal Revenue Code and their related regulations.
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Fringe Benefits

Miscellaneous Minor cost "De minimis" fringe benefits

Asked Thursday, March 01, 2012 by an anonymous user

CPA Answer:

You can exclude the value of a minor cost ( "de minimis") benefit you provide to an employee from the employee's wages.
A de minimis benefit is any property or service you provide to an employee that has so little value (taking into account how frequently you provide similar benefits to your employees) that accounting for it would be unreasonable or administratively impracticable.
Examples of de minimis benefits include the following. Occasional meal money and taxi fares for overtime work.
Transportation fare.
Occasional parties or picnics for employees and their guests.
Occasional tickets for theater or sporting events.
Personal use of an employer-provided cell phone provided primarily for noncompensatory business purposes.
Holiday gifts, other than cash, with a low fair market value.
Group-term life insurance payable on the death of an employee's spouse or dependent if the face amount is not more than $2,000.
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