Are vehicle and equipment cleaners tips tax deductible in 2026?
Yes — vehicle and equipment cleaners are on the IRS tipped occupation list (code 805). 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 805 · Transportation and delivery · official title: Personal Vehicle and Equipment Cleaners
How tipping works in this job
Full-service car washes run on a tip box at the drying end, split across the crew working the line, in small cash amounts per car. Mobile and appointment-based detailing is tipped better and individually, because the customer sees the result and the person who produced it. Boat and RV detailing follows the detailing pattern.
The regulations say: Wash or otherwise clean personal vehicles, machinery, and other equipment. Use such materials as water, cleaning agents, brushes, cloths, and hoses. Examples given: Car wash attendant, auto detailer, boat waxer.
The thing most likely to disqualify your tips
Package upgrades are sales, not tips. A customer who chose the $45 wash over the $25 wash bought more service; they did not tip you $20. The tip is only what goes into the box or into your hand afterwards.
Check your own numbers
Pre-filled for vehicle and equipment cleaners. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Step 1 — your occupation
Checking for Vehicle and equipment cleaners (Treasury code 805). 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: Package upgrades are sales, not tips. A customer who chose the $45 wash over the $25 wash bought more service; they did not tip you $20. The tip is only what goes into the box or into your hand afterwards.
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 vehicle and equipment cleaners
A full-service car wash runs its tipping through a box at the dry line. Customers hand over a few dollars, or drop something in on the way to their car, and it is split at the end of the shift across whoever worked the tunnel and the finishing bay. Per car the amounts are small; across a busy Saturday with a queue down the street they accumulate into a real figure that nobody counts but the crew.
Mobile and appointment-based detailing works completely differently and tips far better. The customer books one person, that person spends three or four hours on their vehicle, and the difference between before and after is dramatic and personally attributable. Tips are individual rather than pooled, larger, and given directly. A detailer who moves from a wash tunnel to mobile work should expect their qualifying tip income to change shape entirely.
The most common misreading in this trade is the package upgrade. A customer who chose the forty-five dollar wash over the twenty-five dollar wash bought more service — wax, undercarriage, interior, tyre dressing — and has not tipped twenty dollars. Ceramic coating, paint correction, odour treatment and engine bay cleaning are all products with prices. Only what goes into the box or the hand afterwards belongs in this deduction.
Boat and RV work sits under the same code and follows the detailing pattern: appointment-based, high-value, and tipped by owners who care a great deal about the result. Marina work is strongly seasonal in most of the country, so an annual figure built from a summer month will overstate the year considerably.
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 vehicle and equipment cleaners on the IRS tipped occupation list?
- Yes. Personal Vehicle and Equipment Cleaners is Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 805, in the transportation and delivery category. The regulations describe it as: Wash or otherwise clean personal vehicles, machinery, and other equipment. Use such materials as water, cleaning agents, brushes, cloths, and hoses.
- What is the most common reason vehicle and equipment cleaners lose the deduction?
- Package upgrades are sales, not tips. A customer who chose the $45 wash over the $25 wash bought more service; they did not tip you $20. The tip is only what goes into the box or into your hand afterwards.
- 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
- 806
Private and charter bus drivers
You drive a coach or bus for private charters and tours.
- 807
Water taxi and charter boat workers
You operate a water taxi or work aboard a private charter boat as crew.
- 808
Rickshaw, pedicab and carriage drivers
You carry passengers by pedicab, rickshaw or horse-drawn carriage.
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.