Tipping for Wine

[jamesglewisf]

I'm not a wine drinker, but I get this question asked a lot, so I did a little research.

The question is, how much do you tip for wine? Does it matter if it is a $30 bottle of wine versus a $400 bottle of wine?

[jamesglewisf]

A lot of people don't know that restaurants report a percentage (around 12%) of the gross sales for food and beverage to the IRS for their staff. This means that if you have a $200 food bill and $200 wine bill, the restaurant will report 12% of $400 or $48 as income to the server. In other words, the server has to pay tax on it whether you tip it or not. If the restaurants do not report it accurately, the restaurant and the wait staff get audited by the IRS.

Please don't get hung up on the 12%. It is just a reasonable example. I would tip 10-15% on the alcohol and 15-20% on the food. 10% on the wine is perfectly acceptable. Whether to tip 10 or 15 percent would depend in large part on how helpful the server was in choosing the wine and serving it.

[jamesglewisf]

This is my number one question for the past month. People want to know about tipping for alcohol.

The funniest part of it is that they are getting their advice from someone who doesn't drink. :) Fortunately for them, I have a lot of friends who are lushes. ;)

[Grimey]

Is that just a resonableness test, or is that what they actually pay the tips on?

[steamboat]

Question - Most restaurants mark up the cost of wine 100 to 400 percent. How is this taken into account when they report their sales to the IRS ?

THZ

[jamesglewisf]

That's a great question.

What gets reported is the sales price, just like for food. Food is marked up the same percentages. It doesn't really cost $10.00 to make cheese enchiladas. Food might even get marked up more than wine.

[steamboat]

So if food is marked up at the same percentage as wine, why are you recommending 10-15% on winw and 15-20% on food ?

[jamesglewisf]

Because that is the customary tipping for wine and food.