If you own a bar, restaurant, or other food or beverage business, tips are likely a part of doing business. Bar and restaurant owners usually pay tipped employees a base hourly wage and tips make up the remainder of their compensation.
Reporting employees’ wages and withholding on their W-2s is complicated enough, but figuring out how to report tip income can be especially confusing if you’re new to the industry.
This guide covers IRS Form 8027, Employer’s Annual Information Return of Tip Income and Allocated Tips, the form the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) uses to track the tips brought in by food and beverage establishments and allocate tips between employees.
All food and beverage businesses aren’t required to file Form 8027. According to IRS rules, you only have to use this form if your business meets all of the following tests:
Here’s how you calculate that test:
While completing the worksheet, keep the following rules in mind:
If you meet the requirements for filing Form 8027, the form isn’t that difficult to fill out. However, you do need to have the right information available. Gathering that information requires having employees properly report their tip income each month. Without this information, it will be impossible to fill out Form 8027 accurately.
There are 3 ways to have employees report tip income.
Employees only need to report tips if they received tips of $20 or more during the month.
To complete Form 8027, you also need:
Once you’ve determined that you need to file Form 8027 and have gathered the information needed to complete your form, filling it out should be relatively straightforward. Here’s an overview of the process. You can find step-by-step instructions in the IRS Instructions for Form 8027.
At the top of Form 8027, you enter information about your business, including:
This section requires the financial data mentioned above.
On lines 1 through 4, provide information on tips. On lines 5 through 6, enter information on gross receipts from sales of food and beverages.
Lines 7 and 8 are where Form 8027 can get tricky. If your total reported tips are less than 8% of total food and beverage sales, you’re required to allocate additional tip income to the W-2 of every employee who reported less than 8% of their respective sales.
Essentially, this rule indicates that the IRS believes these employees aren’t reporting all of their tips, and it’s up to you as the employer to allocate tips so that their reported income reflects the minimum 8% allocation.
The most common ways to do this are:
There’s a 3rd way to handle allocated tips, known as the “good-faith agreement” method. However, this method requires a written agreement between the establishment owner and at least 2/3 of tipped employees. This method is complicated and rarely used. You can find more information about this method in the Instructions for Form 8027.
Allocated tips should go in box 8 of each employee’s W-2.
If getting employees to report tip income properly is an ongoing struggle, the IRS offers a Tip Rate Determination & Education Program. The program can help you implement better processes for tip reporting and educate employees on their tip reporting responsibilities. You can learn more about this program in IRS Publication 3144 or email TIP.Program@IRS.gov to request more information.
Finally, sign and date the form, and it’s ready to file.
If you file more than 1 Form 8027 because you have more than 1 establishment, you may also need to complete Form 8027-T, Transmittal of Employer’s Annual Information Return of Tip Income, and Allocated Tips. This is just a transmittal form used when mailing more than 1 informational tip reporting form. You don’t need Form 8027-T if you electronically file or mail only 1 Form 8027.
Form 8027 is due by February 28 if you file by mail or March 31 if you file electronically. If either of those dates falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline shifts to the next business day.
You can mail the form to:
Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service
Ogden, UT 84201
Alternatively, you can file electronically using the Filing Information Returns Electronically (FIRE) system.
If you need more time to complete the forms, you can request a 30-day extension by filing Form 8809.
If you’re required to file Form 8027 but don’t or knowingly file an inaccurate return, the IRS can levy hefty fines and penalties.
Those penalties include a late fee ranging from $50 to $290 per form, depending on how late you file. In addition, if you don’t correctly fill out Form 8027, you can’t accurately fill out employees’ W-2 forms. The same penalty amounts apply to each W-2 issued incorrectly.
If the IRS determines you’ve intentionally misreported tip income, it can levy fines up to $10,000 and even bring criminal charges against you. For that reason, it’s important for you to have a process in place to collect tip information from employees and accurately report those tips to the IRS.
Working with an accountant or other tax professional will make completing and filing Form 8027 that much easier. While it’s not the most complex tax form you’ll encounter, if you’re already using accounting software like FreshBooks to make working with your accountant easier, getting your accountant’s help with this tax form should be no biggie.
This post was updated in January 2024.