My employer reported 8,696 in tips but nowhere does it indicate that I had to tip out a third of that. I have records of my tipouts. How should I proceed?

[doraGM]

Our POS system never asked for the tipout amount. 10% went to the bar, 15%-20% to busser, 5% to kitchen. All cash. I regularly had to report $300 in tips when I only took home $200. I knew this would happen so I kept a detailed log of all my tips and tipout. Where should I put in that information?

[Carl]

Is your tip income reported in box 8 of your W-2? Or is it all included in box 1?

Did you pay any one person more than $600 of your tip money in 2020?

Typically, box 1 will include all income, and that includes tips. Then box 8 will show the tipout.

[doraGM]

Hello! Thank you so much for replying. My income is listed on box 1. My reported tips are listed on box 7. Box 8 is blank. They wouldn't know how much I tipped out because the POS system never asked for tipout amount. I always thought this was weird, but when I brought it to my employer's attention they said it was the right way to do it. As far as I can tell, all the people who received my tipouts (bussers, bartenders, kitchen) never had to report that money. I only worked at that place for 2 and a half months in 2020. Supposedly my wages were 12,600 before taxes. They reported my tips as nearly 8,700. My records show that I only took home $5,500 in tips total.