Are restaurant host staff tips tax deductible in 2026?
Yes — restaurant host staff are on the IRS tipped occupation list (code 109). 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 109 · Beverage and food service · official title: Host Staff, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop
How tipping works in this job
Hosts are usually tipped indirectly, through a share of the front-of-house pool rather than by guests at the door. At the higher end the pattern flips: a maître d’ at a busy room is handed cash directly, sometimes substantially, for a table on a night that had none. That direct cash is a textbook qualifying tip, and it is also the part most likely to go unreported.
The regulations say: Welcome patrons, seat them at tables or in lounge, and help ensure quality of facilities and service. Examples given: Maître d’hôtel, dining room host.
The thing most likely to disqualify your tips
A reservation deposit or a table minimum is not a tip. Guests sometimes describe the deposit they paid to hold a table as though it were a gratuity to you, but it is a charge set by the restaurant, not an amount the guest chose to give — and it usually never reaches you at all.
Check your own numbers
Pre-filled for restaurant host staff. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Step 1 — your occupation
Checking for Restaurant host staff (Treasury code 109). 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: A reservation deposit or a table minimum is not a tip. Guests sometimes describe the deposit they paid to hold a table as though it were a gratuity to you, but it is a charge set by the restaurant, not an amount the guest chose to give — and it usually never reaches you at all.
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 restaurant host staff
Code 109 covers two jobs that have almost nothing in common beyond standing near the door. One is an hourly host at a chain restaurant, seating parties from a waitlist app and rarely being handed anything by anyone. The other is a maître d’ running the book at a room where a Saturday table is a scarce commodity. The second version of the job can be very well compensated in cash, and almost none of it appears anywhere.
The maître d’ economy is straightforward as a tax matter even though it is discreet as a social one. A guest without a reservation hands over folded cash to be seated. The amount was theirs to choose, they could have walked away, and it went to you. That is a qualifying tip in the cleanest sense, and on a busy weekend in a sought-after restaurant it can be the larger part of the evening’s earnings. It is also, precisely because of how it is given, the part most likely never to be reported — which puts it outside the deduction, since only reported tips can be claimed.
At the other end, hosts are usually folded into the front-of-house pool, taking a small share of the night alongside bussers and runners. That money is documented, arrives through payroll, and needs no reconstruction. Whether hosts are included varies restaurant to restaurant and is worth confirming rather than assuming.
One thing that never reaches you: reservation platform charges. Deposits to hold a table, no-show fees, ticketed tasting menu prepayments and prime-time booking fees are all restaurant or platform revenue. Guests occasionally mention the deposit they paid as though it were a courtesy to the host stand. It was not, and none of it is deductible to you.
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 restaurant host staff on the IRS tipped occupation list?
- Yes. Host Staff, Restaurant, Lounge, and Coffee Shop is Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 109, in the beverage and food service category. The regulations describe it as: Welcome patrons, seat them at tables or in lounge, and help ensure quality of facilities and service.
- What is the most common reason restaurant host staff lose the deduction?
- A reservation deposit or a table minimum is not a tip. Guests sometimes describe the deposit they paid to hold a table as though it were a gratuity to you, but it is a charge set by the restaurant, not an amount the guest chose to give — and it usually never reaches you at all.
- 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 beverage and food service
- 110
Bakers
You bake — bread, pastry, cakes, bagels — whether in a production bakery or behind a retail counter.
- 101
Bartenders
You mix and serve drinks, either straight to customers at the bar or through the servers working the floor.
- 102
Wait staff
You take orders and bring food and drinks to people at tables, in a restaurant or at a catered event.
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.