Tips and gratuities
Employer responsibilities
Tips and gratuities that employees receive are considered income earned in respect of employment. Employees must report all on their personal tax return.
Do employer need to deduct CPP and EI for Tips and gratuities received by employees? The answer depends on whether the tips are considered to have been paid by the employer (controlled tips), whether they are considered to have been paid by the client (direct tips).
Controlled tips are part of the employee's total remuneration. Since they are controlled by the employer, the employer is considered to have paid these amounts to the employee. This means that CPP contributions and EI premiums must be deducted at source, if the employee is employed in pensionable or insurable employment or both.
Direct tips are paid directly by the customer to the employee. The employer has no control over the tip amount or its distribution. The employer is merely a conduit for the tip from the customer to the employee. Direct tips are not subject to CPP contributions or EI premiums.
Controlled tips
Controlled tips refers to tips that an employer controls or possesses and then must pay to the employee. The following are some examples of controlled tips:
the employer adds a mandatory service charge to a client's bill to cover tips
the employer adds a percentage to a client's bill to cover tips
tips that are allocated to employees using a tip-sharing formula determined by the employer
tips that an employer includes in his business income, then expenses and redistributes to employees in the form of pay
tips that the employees turn over to their employer who then distributes them to the employees
cash tips that are deposited into the employer's bank account and become, or are even commingled with, the property of the employer and then paid out to the employees
Direct tips
Direct tips are paid directly by the customer to the employee. The employer has no control over the tip amount or its distribution. The employer is merely a conduit for the tip from the customer to the employee. The following are some examples of direct tips:
a customer leaves money on the table at the end of the meal and the server keeps the whole amount
a guest gives a tip directly to a bellhop, door person, car attendant, porter, etc.
the employees and not the employer decide how the tips are pooled or shared among employees
a customer includes an amount for a tip when paying the bill by credit or debit card and the employer returns the tip amount in cash to the employee at the end of the shift. In exceptional situations the cash tips could be paid out the day after, for example, if there was not enough available cash on hand
GST on Tips and gratuities
Tips and gratuities given by the customer is usually not subject to GST/HST. Because it is not the original bill. It is added after the fact.
Some restaurants, may add a mandatory or suggested gratuity as a service charge to the bill given to the customer. This is often done when a large group is being served. In this case, GST or HST must be charged on the total including the gratuity. However, there would be no GST/HST on any provincial liquor tax that is included on the bill.
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