Tip on expensive bottles of wine

Yes- Deb is totally right on this one- we were there for a casual dinner (as a side note probably drank just as much wine at $40 a bottle HA) and they came and went in a normal amount of time. I get the whole birthday party/all night campers thing too and I've been a server before so I'm careful in that situation. We always tip on our total bill but like I said, sadly, very rarely have that large of a wine bill to consider. Good to know the rule of thumb is to go ahead and tip on it all - HOPEFULLY I will be in that situation one day soon.

I am sure this has been discussed before but I did a search in the forum and couldn't locate a thread...

We overheard some servers discussing how cheap a table was because they has a gigantic bill ($1000+) and only tipped $100. I got to thinking that there was no possible way that 6 people spent $1000+ on food (at this particular restaurant) so I assume they purchased a couple bottles of expensive wine. If you buy $500+ in wine but it's only 2 or 3 bottles do standard tip rules apply? Sadly, I'm not in this position very often but I spent some time thinking about it and wondered what others thought...

Haven't been to Morton's recently I guess?? Two 48 0z. Porterhouse/ two snifters of Louis Tres (that will cost you 1K alone!) Never mind the Opus One and a bottle of Silver Oak for good measure and YOUR THERE!! (not counting the sides....) I have seen parties of two drop 2K on their dinner and not even flinch......different worlds and worlds apart from me, and for that, I am glad! Still, 100$ on a 1K bill seems a touch out of line. If you have the cash, at least compensate your server accordingly...last I checked, that is 10%..JMHO Oops..Didn't want that to read wrong as I was responding to the 10% actually left....I leave 20% even if the sevice blows!.....

Servers are taxed (income-wise) according to their "sales."

A server's tax liability is a minimum of 8% of their pre-taxed, post-promo sales. At the time of checkout, the server keys an amount into the computer for the day's claim. Most waitstaff do not claim more than the minimum. And I do stress, "most" - of course there are some that fear auditting or may plan on applying for a loan.

well, servers are required to claim any and all credit card tips, and in this day and age I have so few cash tables that I generally report at least 15% of my sales if not more due to charge tips. This is true with 90+% of all servers. So we really aren't getting the "tax free ride" of yore that most assume we are.

And yes, if the party is clearly high roller-esque, management in many places will be sure they they receive above perfect service and diverts other table to other servers. I can remember waiting on a small group of liquor execs (10 or so) and instead of getting a full section, only having that table...it was worth it though as they were super classy, and the check was well over $2k...

You are not required to claim all of your credit card tips. The IRS knows that you are tipping your support staff. I don't know of any payroll specialists that take reports from restaurant software or itemized merchant reports to run a payroll period. Your employer is not allowed to report anything other than what you are reporting. If they are afraid of getting auditted, they can have you sign off on your checks to free them of any connection.

well hell. Everywhere I've ever worked has insisted that we report 100% of our cc tips, even though we tip out!!! Dang it.

Not to be too picky, but under tax law, servers are required to report as income 100% of all tips received, cc, cash or otherwise (if there is an "otherwise"). There is no tax law basis to excuse reporting all earned income. It is the historical and chronic failure to do so (i.e., tax cheating) that has caused policies or regulations to be adopted which assume the server makes at least 8% of sales and so forth. Were all tips accurately reported as income, as required by law, no artificial assumptions of income would be necessary. Sorry to rain on the parade.

Not to be too picky, but under tax law, servers are required to report as income 100% of all tips received, cc, cash or otherwise (if there is an "otherwise"). There is no tax law basis to excuse reporting all earned income. It is the historical and chronic failure to do so (i.e., tax cheating) that has caused policies or regulations to be adopted which assume the server makes at least 8% of sales and so forth. Were all tips accurately reported as income, as required by law, no artificial assumptions of income would be necessary. Sorry to rain on the parade.

Now the gates of hell are opened.

This is not the industry of Eden.