Are pet and show animal caretakers tips tax deductible in 2026?
Yes — pet and show animal caretakers are on the IRS tipped occupation list (code 506). 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 506 · Personal services · official title: Pet and Show Animal Caretakers
How tipping works in this job
Groomers are tipped at pickup, in cash or on the card terminal, at rates closer to a salon than to a veterinary practice. Dog walkers and sitters are tipped through the app or at the end of a booking, and holiday tipping is a strong convention in this trade. Kennel staff are usually tipped through a shared box rather than individually.
The regulations say: Feed, water, groom, bathe, exercise, or otherwise provide care to promote and maintain the well-being of pets or show animals. Examples given: Pet groomer, pet sitter, pet walker, kennel worker, pet trainer, horse groomer.
The thing most likely to disqualify your tips
Platform booking fees and “premium” surcharges are not tips. On the walking and sitting apps the customer sees several line items, and only the one they explicitly chose as a tip qualifies — the service fee is the platform’s. Difficult-dog and matted-coat surcharges are prices for extra work, not gratuities.
Check your own numbers
Pre-filled for pet and show animal caretakers. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Step 1 — your occupation
Checking for Pet and show animal caretakers (Treasury code 506). 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: Platform booking fees and “premium” surcharges are not tips. On the walking and sitting apps the customer sees several line items, and only the one they explicitly chose as a tip qualifies — the service fee is the platform’s. Difficult-dog and matted-coat surcharges are prices for extra work, not gratuities.
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 pet and show animal caretakers
Grooming is the strongly tipped half of this occupation and it behaves much like a salon: a percentage on the ticket, paid at pickup, in cash or on the terminal. Owners tip better for difficult dogs, for a groomer their animal is comfortable with, and at the holidays. If you rent a station rather than being employed, the money comes straight to you and no one else records it.
Walking and sitting through an app is the opposite: everything is itemised. The customer sees a service price, a platform booking fee, and a separate tip field, and only the last of those is a qualifying tip. The booking fee is the platform’s revenue even though the customer paid it at the same moment. Because these platforms produce a year-end statement that separates the lines, this is one of the easier occupations on the list to get right — provided you read the statement rather than taking the total payout as tips.
The surcharge question is the one that catches groomers. A matted-coat charge, a large-breed charge, an aggressive-handling charge or a de-shedding upgrade are all prices for extra work that the salon set. An owner who paid $40 more because the coat was matted did not tip you $40. This matters because those surcharges frequently go partly or wholly to the groomer who did the work, which makes them feel like tips in the pay stub.
Kennel and boarding staff sit in this code too, and are usually tipped through a shared box at the front desk rather than individually, split across the shift. Horse grooms are also here, where tipping is concentrated around show days and clients rather than daily barn work. In both cases the qualifying figure is your distributed share, and in both cases nobody else is counting it.
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 pet and show animal caretakers on the IRS tipped occupation list?
- Yes. Pet and Show Animal Caretakers is Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 506, in the personal services category. The regulations describe it as: Feed, water, groom, bathe, exercise, or otherwise provide care to promote and maintain the well-being of pets or show animals.
- What is the most common reason pet and show animal caretakers lose the deduction?
- Platform booking fees and “premium” surcharges are not tips. On the walking and sitting apps the customer sees several line items, and only the one they explicitly chose as a tip qualifies — the service fee is the platform’s. Difficult-dog and matted-coat surcharges are prices for extra work, not gratuities.
- 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 personal services
- 507
Tutors
You teach individual students or small groups outside their formal schooling, in person or online.
- 508
Nannies and babysitters
You care for children — in a family home, or at a hotel or gym childcare service.
- 509
Visual artists
You make original visual work — the code has in mind artists working live, like caricaturists and ice sculptors.
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.