[Ntrails]

I don't know that to be generally true based on both my experience in the industry and those people I know still in it.

There were certainly places I worked where any credit card tips were declared for tax whilst cash tips weren't. This is one reason why staff preferred cash. Similarly in some places cash was distributed by shift whereas cards were distributed monthly based on hours worked.

As a final point, the idea of tipping the person directly is not consistent with anywhere i've ever worked. Even when distributing at the end of a shift, everyone would have put tips in the jar to be shared between staff.

[monksy]

> This is one reason why staff preferred cash. Similarly in some places cash was distributed by shift whereas cards were distributed monthly based on hours worked.

Let's call a spade a spade. It's for tax evasion purposes. That's the reason that the IRS assumes that you make 15% tips on everything if you're a server. (Otherwise people would never report it and to caught the large amount would never be recovered)