FICA Tip Credit Calculator for Restaurants
Get back much of the employer FICA you paid on your servers', bartenders', and bussers' reported tips. The §45B threshold is the frozen federal $5.15 — not your state minimum.
Restaurants are the classic §45B case. Your tipped staff report tips, you pay employer Social Security and Medicare on them, and the credit is based on the creditable portion — what's left after the tips needed to lift each employee's cash wage to $5.15/hour are set aside.
Because the threshold is frozen at $5.15, restaurants in states that require a higher cash wage before tips frequently find that essentially all reported tips are creditable. In $2.13-cash-wage states, the calculator splits out the non-creditable portion that offsets the minimum-wage floor.
Threshold for this category: $5.15/hour — the frozen federal rate.
Examples
15 servers, full-cash-wage state
At about $300/week in tips each, a 15-server restaurant can see roughly $17,900 in annual credit when all tips are creditable.
Bartenders vs. servers
Some states set a different tipped cash wage for bartenders. Pick the matching wage rule per employee so the offset is right.
Multi-location groups
Add each location with its own state and roll the totals up into one worksheet for your accountant.
Frequently asked questions
Do bussers and food runners count?+
If they customarily receive tips and you pay employer FICA on those reported tips, they belong in the worksheet just like servers.
We pay $2.13 cash plus tips — do we still qualify?+
Yes. Part of each employee's tips first offsets the gap to $5.15/hour; the remainder is creditable. The calculator computes both parts.
What about service charges?+
Mandatory service charges are treated as wages, not tips, so they are not part of the §45B tip credit. Only reported tips count.