Say Goodbye to the IRS Restaurant Audit

Posted by accountingweb on Nov 1 1999 419 printer friendly

A kindler, gentler IRS? Possibly.

The Internal Revenue Service has announced it will no longer audit restaurants as long as establishments comply with the tax laws associated with tip reporting, regardless if wait persons actually are cheating on their own reporting of tips.

In exchange, the IRS says it will target the wait persons themselves, who must report any tips received totaling over $20 a month. The losses are staggering, according to industry sources. For example, the restaurant industry reports revenues of $250 billion, and only $7 billion in tips were reported last year.

This effort is the latest in a series of tactics by the IRS to provide taxpayer relief.

Voice of the Editor

Even though any accounting auditor would tell you it seems like there are an awful lot of tax accountants out there, surely one-third of the country isn't made up of tax preparers, so it's rather startling news to learn that one-third of Americans like to do their taxes. Who knew?

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