I am one of the partners of a LLC that owns and operates a restaurant

[ashwins]

Myself and one other partner is on our restaurants payroll.

We do the front end operations - manning the cash counter, talking to customers etc.

Ours is a fast food restaurant and so there are no waiters - just 1 chef and 1 cleaner.

We are thinking of retaining 50% of the tips at the LLC. (the other 50% would be distributed between the chef and the cleaner) Are we allowed to do this?

If not, can we include the tips in our payroll as part of our paychecks?

[smarttees]

The 50% retained is going to flow through to you and your partner at the end of the year anyway. Putting it on your payroll as a guaranteed payment would work. 

[ashwins]

Thanks for the response.

I was referring to :

https://www.eater.com/2018/3/22/17151172/tipping-laws-trump-budget-bill-pooling-minimum-wages

where it's mentioned that employers can't retain tips.

I guess since the employers also work at the restaurant, this doesn't apply.