Originally Posted by
Sam - DFW
1. when i first was introduced to tipping by my parents, i was told to double the tax. that works to include pre-tax and gets you around 15% - 19%. i think i will go back to that instead of 20% on the total. i am surprised no one mentioned this since it seems to be fairly common.
That's a great rule of thumb as long as you're in places where the tax rate is fairly high. I'm not sure if therre are still any parts of the country with a 5%-6% sales tax, but there at least used to be
2. if you give the server your credit card immediately when the check is presented, a lot of times you get the credit card slips but not the paper bill and itemization. if you want to review the bill, do it before giving your card
That helps. OTOH, if I forget, since I usually just do 20% on the pre-tax, well, 15% on the after tax isn't that different.