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Form 8027 is used by large food or beverage establishments when the employer is required to make annual reports to the IRS on receipts from food or beverage operations and tips reported by employees.
All employees receiving $20 or more a month in tips must report 100% of their tips to their employer.
If you are an employer who operates a large food or beverage establishment, you must file Form 8027. If you own more than one establishment, you must file Form 8027 for each one. There may be more than one establishment (business activity providing food or beverages) operating within a single building, and, if gross receipts are recorded separately, each activity is required to file a Form 8027.
A return is required only for establishments in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
If you are required to report for more than one establishment, you must complete and file Form 8027-T, Transmittal of Employer's Annual Information Return of Tip Income and Allocated Tips, with Forms 8027.
A large food or beverage establishment is one to which all of the following apply:
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Food or beverage is provided for consumption on the premises.
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Tipping is a customary practice.
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More than 10 employees who work more than 80 hours were normally employed on a typical business day during the preceding calendar year.
Complete the worksheet below to determine if you had more than 10 employees on a typical business day during 2007 and, therefore, must file Form 8027 for 2008. It is the average number of employee hours worked on a typical business day that determines whether or not you employed more than 10 employees.
1. | Enter one-half of the total employee hours worked during the month in 2007 with the greatest aggregate gross receipts from food and beverages | |
2. | Enter the number of days opened for business during the month shown in line 1 | |
3. | Enter one-half of the total employee hours worked during the month in 2007 with the least aggregate gross receipts from food and beverages | |
4. | Enter the number of days opened for business during the month shown in line 3. | |
5. | Divide line 1 by line 2. | |
6. | Divide line 3 by line 4. | |
7. | Add lines 5 and 6. If line 7 is greater than 80 (hours), you must file Form 8027 for 2008. |
Note.
The filing requirement (more than 10 employees) is based on the total of all employees who provided services in connection with the provision of food and beverages at the establishment, not just the number of directly tipped employees. Include employees such as waitstaff, bussers, bartenders, seat persons, wine stewards, cooks, and kitchen help. See Regulations section 31.6053-3(j)(10) for more information.
A person who owns 50% or more in value of the stock of a corporation that runs the establishment is not considered an employee when determining whether the establishment normally employs more than 10 individuals.
A return is not required for:
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Establishments operated for less than 1 month in calendar year 2008.
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Fast food restaurants and operations where tipping is not customary such as cafeterias or operations where 95% of the total sales are carryout sales or sales with a service charge of 10% or more.
File Form 8027 (and Form 8027-T when filing more than one Form 8027) by March 2, 2009. However, if you file electronically, the due date is March 31, 2009.
Mail Form 8027 to:
Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service
Cincinnati, OH 45999
Rev. Proc. 2008-34, Specification for Filing Form 8027, Employer's Annual Information Return of Tip Income and Allocated Tips,
Electronically, is reprinted as Publication 1239. You can also find Rev. Proc. 2008-34 at
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb08-27.pdf.
The law provides for a penalty if you do not file Form 8027 (and Form 8027-T) on time unless you can show reasonable cause for the delay. You may be charged penalties for each failure to:
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Timely file a correct information return including failure to file electronically if required.
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Timely provide a correct Form W-2 to the employee.
For more information on penalties for untimely or incorrect Forms W-2 or 8027, see Sec. 9 Penalties in Rev. Proc. 2008-34, and the Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3.
Gross receipts include all receipts (other than nonallocable receipts, see definition below) from cash sales, charge receipts, charges to a hotel room (excluding tips charged to the hotel room if your accounting procedures allow these tips to be separated), and the retail value of complimentary food or beverages served to customers as explained below.
Also include charged tips in gross receipts, but only to the extent that you reduced your cash sales by the amount of any cash you paid to tipped employees for any charged tips due them. However, if you did not reduce cash sales for charged tips paid out to employees, do not include those charged tips in gross receipts. Do not include state or local taxes in gross receipts.
Remind all directly and indirectly tipped employees to include all charged tips and all cash tips received in the tip amount that they must report to you.
You must allocate tips among employees who receive them if the total tips reported to you during any payroll period are less than 8% (or the approved lower rate) of this establishment's gross receipts for that period.
Generally, the amount allocated is the difference between the total tips reported by employees and 8% (or the lower rate) of the gross receipts, other than nonallocable receipts.
Internal Revenue Service
National Tip Reporting Compliance
678 Front Avenue NW, Suite 200
Grand Rapids, MI 49504-5335
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Employer's name, address, and EIN;
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Establishment's name, address, and establishment number;
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Detailed description of the establishment that would help to determine the tip rate. The description should include the type of restaurant, days and hours of operation, type of service including any self-service, the person (waiter or waitress, cashier, etc.) to whom the customer pays the check, whether the check is paid before or after the meal, and whether alcohol is available;
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Past year's information shown on lines 1 through 6 of Form 8027 as well as total carryout sales; total charge sales; percentage of sales for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; average dollar amount of a guest check; service charge, if any, added to the check; and the percentage of sales with a service charge;
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Type of clientele; and
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Copy of a representative menu for each meal.
The petition must contain the following statement and be signed by a responsible person who is authorized to make and sign a return, statement, or other document.
“Under penalties of perjury, I declare that I have examined this application, including accompanying documents, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, the facts presented in support of this petition are true, correct, and complete.” |
Give each employee who has been allocated tips a Form W-2 that shows the allocated amount in box 8. The form must be furnished to the employee by January 31 of the following year. If employment ends before the end of the year and the employee asks for the Form W-2, a tip allocation is not required on the early Form W-2. However, you may include on the early Form W-2 the employee's actual tip allocation or a good-faith estimate of the allocation. Signify a good-faith estimate by writing “estimate” next to the allocated amount in box 8 of the Form W-2.
If no allocation was shown on the early Form W-2 or if the estimated allocation on the early form differs from the actual amount by more than 5%, give the employee a new Form W-2 marked “CORRECTED” with the correct information during January of the next year.
If you allocate tips among employees by the methods described in the instructions for lines 7a through 7c, you are not liable to any employee if any amount is improperly allocated. However, if the allocation shown on the employee's Form W-2 differs from the correct allocation by more than 5%, you must adjust that employee's allocation and must review the allocable amount of all other employees in the same establishment to assure that the error did not distort any other employee's share by more than 5%.
Use the current version of Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement, to report the corrected allocation on a previously filed Form W-2. However, if you discover the allocation error on Form W-2 after you issue it to your employee but before you send it to the Social Security Administration (SSA), prepare a new Form W-2 with the correct information, and send Copy A to the SSA. Write “CORRECTED” on the employee's new copies (B, C, and 2), and furnish them to the employee. Do not write “CORRECTED” on Copy A of Form W-2.
You do not need to send to the IRS separate copies of Forms W-2 showing allocated tips. The IRS will use the information shown on the Forms W-2 that you file with the Social Security Data Operations Center.
Tip allocations have no effect on withholding income or social security or Medicare taxes from employees' wages. Allocated tips are not subject to withholding and are not to be included in boxes 1, 3, 5, and 7, of Form W-2.
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