Recover taxes you may have already paid on employee tips
1
Eligibility Review
We verify your business qualifies — restaurants, bars, hotels, and other establishments where tipping is customary.
2
Records Analysis
Specialists review your tip reporting, payroll records, and FICA contributions to calculate your potential credit.
3
Credit Recovery
The credit is claimed on your tax return. You can recover up to 3 years of historical credits plus ongoing annual savings.
What is the FICA Tip Credit?
Under IRS Section 45B, employers in food and beverage establishments can claim a tax credit for the employer portion of FICA taxes paid on tips that exceed minimum wage. This is a dollar-for-dollar credit that directly reduces your tax liability.
IRS Section 45B — Explicitly defined in the tax code since 1993
Any size business — From single-location cafes to multi-unit restaurant groups
Recover past credits — Amend returns for up to 3 prior years
No impact on employees — This is an employer-side credit only
Works with any payroll system — Toast, Square, ADP, Gusto, or manual tracking
Who This Is For
Designed for businesses with staff who receive gratuities:
Restaurants and bars
Hotels and resorts
Catering and event venues
Coffee shops and similar service businesses
What Is This Credit?
A dollar-for-dollar benefit that may allow eligible employers to recover amounts paid on employee reported gratuities, based on IRS rules (Section 45B).
7.65% of reported gratuities, recovered as a credit.
How the Process Works
Answer a few questions
Specialists review eligibility and estimate the amount
If you qualify, the claim is prepared with proper support
You keep clear documentation for your records
Historical Recovery
Generally, we can look back and file amended returns for the previous three years.
This often results in a significant one-time recovery for businesses that haven't been claiming their full credit.
Check Eligibility
Fill this out and we will review your eligibility and provide an estimate.
Frequently Asked Questions
The average recovery is $40,000-$50,000 for the 3-year look back period. We've seen credits range from $10,000 to over $100,000 depending on tip volume and staff size. A restaurant doing $1 million in annual sales with typical 15% tip rates could recover around $30,000 over three years.
Full-service restaurants where servers receive tips are ideal candidates. This includes: sports bars, taverns, pubs, steakhouses, Italian restaurants, nightclubs, hotels, and any establishment where someone greets you, seats you, and a server takes your order. If your staff earns tips at 15-20% of sales, you likely qualify.
Fast food establishments (QSR) typically don't qualify — Subway, Dunkin', etc. Coffee shops with just a tip jar at the counter usually don't have enough tip volume. The key is whether your employees receive substantial tips (15%+ of sales), not just occasional small tips on credit card transactions.
We require a minimum $10,000 credit to process a claim. For full-service restaurants, this typically means at least $500,000 in annual revenue. Restaurants doing $500K-$2M per year are our sweet spot — these owners are often hands-on and haven't claimed the credit.
We do a 3-year look back and amend your prior returns. Currently, we can claim for 2022, 2023, and 2024. As we move into 2026, 2022 will fall off and we'll add 2025. In some cases where returns were filed late, we've recovered credits for 4 years.
You can still claim the credit. If your restaurant closed in 2024, we can still amend your 2022, 2023, and partial 2024 returns. Every year, restaurants close but remain eligible for their historical credits. Act quickly — each month that passes risks losing a year of credits.
If your locations are under one entity/payroll, they're aggregated together which often increases your total credit. Even if individual locations fall below the $10K threshold, combined they may qualify. We've successfully processed restaurant groups with 7-10+ locations.
Our CPAs will review your returns anyway. We frequently find that accountants made calculation errors or missed credits. In one case, a business thought they'd already claimed everything — we found an additional $65,000 their accountant had overlooked. It costs nothing to check.
That law benefits employees by eliminating their tax on tips. However, business owners still owe FICA tax on employee tips — that hasn't changed. While your employees get relief, you can also recover the FICA taxes you've been paying all these years through this credit.
Employers pay 7.65% FICA tax on all employee wages including tips. The credit lets you recover FICA paid on tips above the federal minimum wage for tipped employees ($5.15/hour). For example, if a server earns $20/hour in tips, you can recover FICA on the $14.85 above minimum. Over thousands of tip hours, this adds up quickly.
The tip credit can offset your tax debt. We've had clients with $200,000 in back taxes discover they had $100,000 in unclaimed tip credits — effectively cutting their debt in half. The credit is applied against what you owe, potentially clearing or significantly reducing your tax burden.
The FICA Tip Credit (IRS Section 45B) has existed since 1993 — over 30 years. Yet 90%+ of eligible restaurants haven't claimed it. Even experienced accountants often don't know about it. It's not that it's hidden — accountants just aren't trained to proactively find these credits for their clients.
Yes. Franchise owners file their own taxes and are eligible independently from corporate. We've processed Texas Roadhouse franchises, Buffalo Wild Wings locations, and many others. Just because one franchise owner knows about the credit doesn't mean others do — each location is a potential opportunity.
You may still qualify. It depends on how wages are structured and reported. We've seen various scenarios where servers are paid $15+/hour and the business still qualifies. Let our CPAs review your specific situation — it costs nothing to find out.
After you submit the initial application and sign the authorization form, we can typically tell you within 7-10 days if you're pre-qualified and approximately how much you're owed. At that point, we'll request any additional documents needed to process your full claim.
Initially, just sign an 8821 form (IRS authorization) so we can pull your tax transcripts — that's it. We don't ask for documents until we've confirmed you have a credit coming. Then, based on your entity type (LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp), we'll provide a specific list. Most businesses have everything they need readily available.
Nothing upfront. There's no cost to find out if you qualify or how much you're owed. We only charge a percentage of the refund when the money hits your account. If we don't recover anything for you, you pay nothing. It's completely risk-free.
No. Unlike ERC which was a temporary COVID program, the FICA Tip Credit is permanent tax law (Section 45B) that's been in place since 1993. It will continue indefinitely. Every year brings new restaurants opening and new three-year windows to claim — this opportunity doesn't end.