Are parking and valet attendants tips tax deductible in 2026?
Yes — parking and valet attendants are on the IRS tipped occupation list (code 801). Tips in this job are deductible for 2026, up to $25,000, if the customer chose the amount and could have declined.
Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 801 · Transportation and delivery · official title: Parking and Valet Attendants
How tipping works in this job
Valet tipping happens at retrieval, in cash, in small amounts, dozens of times a shift — and it is very often pooled across the stand and split at the end of the night. Restaurant and hotel valets do better than garage attendants. The whole thing is cash, so the stand’s own tally sheet is usually the only record that exists.
The regulations say: Park vehicles or issue tickets for customers in a parking lot or garage. May park or tend vehicles in environments such as a hotel or restaurant. May collect fee. Examples given: Parking garage attendant, valet parker.
The thing most likely to disqualify your tips
The valet parking charge is not your tip. Where a hotel bills $45 overnight valet to the room, that is the property’s revenue, and any share of it that reaches you is wages. The $5 the guest hands you when you bring the car round is the qualifying part.
Check your own numbers
Pre-filled for parking and valet attendants. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Step 1 — your occupation
Checking for Parking and valet attendants (Treasury code 801). This occupation is on the list.
Step 2 — is it actually a tip?
Answer for the money you are asking about. If some of your income is tips and some is service charges, run them separately.
Step 3 — your tips and income
The phase-out runs on modified AGI, which for most people is the same as AGI.
3 questions left to answer.
OBBBA Deductions · obbbadeductions.com
Tips deduction worksheet — tax year 2026
The three tests, as answered
- Does the customer decide the amount? not answered
- Can the customer decline to pay it? not answered
- Is it a mandatory service charge or auto-gratuity? not answered
Answer the 3 remaining questions above for a result.
Watch out for this in your job: The valet parking charge is not your tip. Where a hotel bills $45 overnight valet to the room, that is the property’s revenue, and any share of it that reaches you is wages. The $5 the guest hands you when you bring the car round is the qualifying part.
Educational estimate only, not tax advice. It runs entirely in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere. The deduction is scheduled to expire after tax year 2028.
How this applies to parking and valet attendants
Valet work runs on small cash amounts at the moment a car is returned — a few dollars, many times a shift. In most stands the money is pooled and split at the end of the night, sometimes including the runners who fetch the cars and sometimes not. Your qualifying figure is your share of that pool, and the stand’s tally sheet is very often the only document that will ever exist.
The parking charge is not your tip and this is worth being precise about, because valet is one of the few occupations where the customer pays a substantial fee at exactly the same moment they tip. A hotel billing $45 a night for valet parking is charging for parking. If the property routes part of that to the stand, it is wages. The $5 the guest hands you when you bring the car round is the qualifying part, and it is usually a fraction of what they paid.
Event and restaurant valet adds a second pattern. On contracted events — weddings, corporate functions, private parties — the host often pays a per-car rate that includes a gratuity for the crew, precisely so guests are not asked for cash. That included gratuity is a contract term, not a customer-chosen tip, so it does not qualify even though it is the whole reason guests are not tipping you individually that night.
Garage and lot attendants in this same code see far less tipping than restaurant and hotel valets, concentrated around monthly regulars and the holidays. If you work across both kinds of site, your tip income is effectively coming from one of them, and an annual estimate that averages across your whole schedule will be wrong in a predictable direction.
The three tests, whatever your job
Paid voluntarily
The customer sets the amount and can decline to pay it.
Paid in cash or a cash equivalent
Card payments and mobile payments count.
Received directly or through a tip pool
Both routes qualify.
Questions
- Are parking and valet attendants on the IRS tipped occupation list?
- Yes. Parking and Valet Attendants is Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 801, in the transportation and delivery category. The regulations describe it as: Park vehicles or issue tickets for customers in a parking lot or garage. May park or tend vehicles in environments such as a hotel or restaurant. May collect fee.
- What is the most common reason parking and valet attendants lose the deduction?
- The valet parking charge is not your tip. Where a hotel bills $45 overnight valet to the room, that is the property’s revenue, and any share of it that reaches you is wages. The $5 the guest hands you when you bring the car round is the qualifying part.
- How much of my tips can I deduct?
- Up to $25,000 per return, whatever your filing status. The cap applies first, then the amount is reduced by $100 for every $1,000 of modified adjusted gross income above the threshold for your filing status.
- Does a mandatory service charge count as a tip?
- No. A mandatory service charge or automatic gratuity is not a qualifying tip, and the final regulations confirmed this explicitly. It does not qualify even when the customer cannot decline it — a qualifying tip has to be an amount the customer chose to give.
Related occupations in transportation and delivery
- 802
Taxi and rideshare drivers
You drive passengers — as a cab driver, a chauffeur, or on a rideshare app.
- 803
Shuttle drivers
You drive a scheduled shuttle — hotel, airport or rental car — on a fixed route.
- 804
Delivery drivers and couriers
You deliver goods — food, groceries, packages, furniture — by van, car or bike.
Occupation data transcribed from T.D. 10044 — final regulations on occupations that customarily and regularly received tips, Treas. Reg. § 1.224-1(h) table 1, last verified 2026-09-08. Read the regulations.