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IRS Issues Calculation Clarifications Regarding Tips, Overtime Pay

The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued guidance detailing how employees can calculate tax deduction amounts applicable to tips and overtime pay when submitting federal returns, the IRS said in a Nov. 21 statement.
The agency is in the process of updating income tax forms after President Donald Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July, which gave taxpayers certain provisions to claim such deductions.

Under the bill, workers may be eligible for new deductions for tax years 2025 through 2028 if they received qualified tips, with the maximum annual deduction being $25,000. This amount phases out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income over $150,000 ($300,000 for joint filers).

The IRS estimates there are about six million workers in the United States who report tipped wages. A notice issued along with the latest IRS statement listed various ways to calculate these amounts.

To calculate tips that qualify for deduction, employees can use the total amount of social security tips reported in box 7 of the Form W-2 or the total amount of tips reported to the employer on all Forms 4070 or similar forms.

However, if the employer chooses to report the tip amount in box 14 of Form W-2, or separately, the employee may use this amount to calculate qualified tips.

In addition to these options, workers may include any amount listed on line 4 of the 2025 Form 4137 filed with the employee’s 2025 income tax return.

Form W-2 for 2025 has not been modified to account for the new tips reporting requirements. As such, “employers are not required to separately account for cash tips on the written statements furnished to individuals for 2025.”

The IRS notice said that the employee is responsible for making sure their job matches a profile “that customarily and regularly” receives tips.

As for non-employees, these individuals may deduct an amount equal to the qualified tips on Forms 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC, or 1099-K, which are subject to certain limitations.

In order for the worker’s overtime pay to be qualified, the individual must be FLSA-eligible.

FLSA refers to the Fair Labor Standards Act, which requires employees covered under the act to be paid overtime pay for any work they do in excess of 40 hours per workweek. The overtime pay must be one and one-half times their regular rate of pay.

If an individual is paid such overtime compensation and receives a yearly statement that separately accounts for the overtime premium, which is generally the half portion of the one and one-half times amount, they may use that separate amount for calculations.

If the statement does not separately account for the FLSA Overtime Premium, but includes the aggregate dollar amount of the overtime combined with wages for regular hours, the individual may use one-third of that aggregate dollar amount.

Now, if the statement separately accounts for the overtime amount, but the individual is paid at a rate of two times the regular rate, they may multiply that separate amount by an appropriate fraction to approximate the overtime premium.

The notice listed multiple scenarios for calculating overtime amounts along with examples.

State Taxes and Dividends

At the state level, multiple states, including Texas, Wyoming, and Florida, have done away with taxes on tips and overtime pay.

In October, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill removing state taxes on tips, overtime pay, and social security benefits. The change is expected to save “hundreds of thousands of seniors and working families money on their taxes every year,” said the lawmaker’s office.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has suggested that more tax benefits could be coming soon for Americans.

President Donald Trump recently said that many people could be eligible for a dividend of at least $2,000 from the trade tariffs collected so far.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicated that this dividend could also come in other forms, including lower taxes.

During a Nov. 20 press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said tax filers could expect an extra $1,000 in their tax refunds next year.

“We know these refunds will make a huge difference for Americans to help pay down their bills and use towards life’s expenses,” she said.

“President Trump’s entire economic agenda is aimed at putting more money back into the pockets of hard-working Americans. That’s why he signed the largest middle-class tax cuts in history into law, from no tax on overtime, no tax on tips, to no tax on social security.”

In October, the IRS announced annual inflation adjustments for the 2026 tax year for over 60 tax provisions.

One of the revised provisions was the standard deduction. For 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act had set the standard deduction at $15,750 for single individuals, which rises to $16,100 in 2026, said the IRS.



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