For venues
Out of the money. Still in the loop.
The tag belongs to the worker. There is nothing for you to install. The venue is never in the flow of funds. A tip goes from the guest to the worker through licensed payment partners.
Two paths
The money does not pass through you. The paperwork still does.
Solid is money. Dashed is paperwork. You are on the dashed line, not the solid one.
The money
The guest
Pays in dollars: Apple Pay, Google Pay or a card.
A licensed payments provider
Takes the payment and pays it out.
The worker
The whole tip, on their own debit card.
The paperwork
The worker
Hands you the month’s report by the 10th of the next month.
You
Withhold and report on wages plus reported tips, as before.
Form W-2
Carries the reported cash tips and the occupation code.
Ins Tip is a technology company, not a bank. Payments and card services are provided by licensed partners.
Your part
What you are not doing, and what still applies
Ins Tip is not a tax adviser. The links are the IRS’s own pages, and your accountant has the last word.
What you are not doing
Installing anything.
The tag belongs to the worker. There is nothing for you to install.
Holding tip money.
The venue is never in the flow of funds. A tip goes from the guest to the worker through licensed payment partners.
Handing tip pools to us.
Ins Tip does not pool or split tips. Your tip-pool rules are still yours to set and your team’s to follow.
What still applies
Employees report tips to you each month.
Your employees still report their tips to you each month. Ins Tip gives them the report to hand in by the 10th. An employee who receives $20 or more in tips in a month reports them to the employer by the 10th of the next month.
SourceIRS: Publication 531
You withhold and report as before.
Ins Tip does not change what you withhold or report on the tips your employees report to you. That is income tax, Social Security and Medicare on wages plus reported tips, and then Form W-2.
The W-2 has a place for it.
For 2026, box 12 code TP carries the cash tips reported to you, and box 14b carries the occupation code.
SourceIRS: Form W-2 for 2026
The monthly report
One page, by the 10th.
Your employees still report their tips to you each month. Ins Tip gives them the report to hand in by the 10th.
It is one page: who they are, the period, the total and the occupation code. Payroll gets its figure without chasing it.
The worker hands it in. Ins Tip gets it ready from the record.
What your guest sees
What your guest sees
A web page with the worker’s name on it. See one.
- The guest pays a service fee on top, shown before payment. Nothing is taken from a tip.
- The guest can always give nothing. No amount is pre-selected.
The card Planned
No card is ever a condition of work.
The Ins Tip card is planned, not live. It will always be the worker’s choice, never a condition of work. Regulation E’s compulsory-use rule applies.
Ins Tip is not a bank, not a money transmitter, not a card issuer and not a tax adviser.
Ins Tip is a technology company, not a bank. Payments and card services are provided by licensed partners.
A conversation
Tell us how you handle tip reporting today.
We are asking, not selling. A short conversation about how the month’s tips reach payroll today. Nothing is sold in it.
Working name. Private preview. Not live.
Noted.
In the live version we would write back to set up a conversation. Nothing is sold in it. This is a preview, so nothing was sent and nothing was stored.