If tipping is customary at your business and you pay employer-side FICA tax on reported tips, you may be sitting on a federal tax credit you've never claimed — plus up to three years of prior filings.
The FICA Tip Credit — created under Internal Revenue Code Section 45B — lets eligible employers claim a federal income tax credit for the employer share of Social Security and Medicare (FICA) taxes paid on employee tip income above the federal minimum wage threshold.
You already paid these payroll taxes on tips your team reported. This credit hands a portion of that back as a dollar-for-dollar reduction in what you owe — not a deduction, a direct credit. Unused credit carries forward up to 20 years, and eligible businesses can typically amend up to three prior years of returns.
Full-service, quick-service, and bar operations where tipping on food and beverage service is standard.
Tipped staff serving food or beverage as part of hotel and resort operations.
Counter-service locations where tips are customary and reported through payroll.
Core requirements: your employees receive tips from customers for providing, delivering, or serving food or beverages, and you paid or incurred employer Social Security and Medicare tax on those tips during the tax year. It doesn't matter whether the employee separately reports the tips on their own return.
Enter a few numbers about your tipped staff. This uses the same calculation the IRS requires on Form 8846 — not a rough guess.
Estimate reflects your net recovery after your filing partner's contingency fee, based on the figures you entered. Final amount is confirmed during document review.
Share basic payroll and tip-reporting details. Our partner specialists confirm whether — and how much — you likely qualify for, at no cost.
Your partner CPA team pulls payroll records, tip reports, and prior returns to calculate the credit precisely and prepare IRS Form 8846.
The credit is filed with your return (or as an amendment for prior years), and any refund is issued directly to your business.
No. The eligibility review is free, and our partner's fee (if you move forward) is typically structured around the recovery, not billed hourly upfront. You'll see the exact terms before anything is filed.
In most cases, yes — you can generally amend the last three tax years in addition to the current year, which is often where the largest recoveries come from.
No minimum size. What matters is whether tipping is customary at your business and whether you've paid employer FICA tax on those reported tips.
No. We're an independent referral partner. Your filing is prepared and reviewed by our partner's licensed tax professionals — we simply connect you to them and to funding once your credit is recovered.