We were discussing this in my AP MacroECONOMICS class; public money and tips.
YES, it is true! You can actually take the money from the tip jars at restaurants and such. The reason WHY you can do this is because tips are public money and unless the restuarant can provide the W2 forms that say that they make their incomes from the tips...you are free to take the money from the tip jars. HOWEVER, do not take the jar because that is the restaurants property!
In the news:
Recently, a man ran out with the tip jar and the money in it and fled from police, believing he would be in trouble and go to jail. However, when they arrested him and took him to court, he was tried for resisting arrest and stealing the JAR, NOT THE MONEY IN IT!!!
So next time you feel like taking the tip money, go for it! If the employees tell you something about just ask to see the W2 forms to prove that the tips make up their incomes...YOU WON't go to jail!!!!
That's too funny, LOL
~<3~Love and be loved!~<3~
Wow, I learned something new today. Take a penny, leave a penny.
Sweet.
Michelle
UI undergraduate
Focus: philosophy, biology, education
Thats unbelievable, but very funny. LOL
*NeSsA*
Your "AP MacroECONOMICS class" is obviously a forum for theoretical discussion, but all you seem to be gleaning from it is some warped idea that you can steal from other people without compunction.
"Public money," indeed! For bartenders, waitresses, and other tipped workers this is their INCOME. How would you like it if someone took the money out of your purse or wallet and said that unless you can "provide [your] W2 forms" it is "public money" and they can therefore steal it without consequence?
Even if it were not illegal (which it is), it is immoral, unethical, and reprehensible to STEAL (yes, like your mother should have taught you). I can't help being amazed that anyone would actually need to be told that taking money that does not belong to you is WRONG. Oh, and since you apparently don't know what that word means, maybe you should take some AP class in building your vocabulary (and character).
Even if we allow for your misguided "ask to see the W2 forms" theory, how would this make someone else's tips "public money" and somehow yours for the taking? How would a given day's tips even be expected to show up on someone's annual W2 form that hasn't even been issued yet? Service people and their employers are required by the IRS to report and pay taxes on tips, and their W2s do reflect that income. I own a bar, and believe me, we report our employees' tip income to the IRS every pay period as well as on their annual W2s - because (guess what!) it would be ILLEGAL not to do so.. (Again, try a dictionary - look up ETHICS while you're at it - and look up "public money," too, which is an esoteric political term that you obviously have no grasp of.)
As far as your spurious evidence about "a man" who was "in the news" why don't you supply any details regarding this obviously apocryphal nonsense, such as what man in what news, in what jurisdiction? Point me to a reputable source for this story. Even if it has the slightest grain of truth (which I doubt), the man is a THIEF by any normal person's standards - get it?
Again, try this concept on for size - it's not just illegal, it's WRONG to steal. Do folks nowadays just not grasp that? Stealing is stealing and anyone who thinks it is "funny" or "sweet" to take someone else's hard-earned money has no moral compass whatsoever. As a matter of fact, they are what my grandpa would have referred to as "no-good, bottom-feeding wastes of skin."
Oh, and btw, don’t visit Texas if you think this is a good idea:
http://www.kristv.com/global/story.asp?s=4945921
:-)
What a person is able to do and what they ought to do are often two different things.
Unfortunately.
I've not heard this story about a guy stealing a tip jar and only getting busted for a jar. I do know that when I worked as a pizza delivery driver, we had to enter in our tips at the end of every shift so that the proper taxes could be taken out.
The morality of an Income Tax aside, I find it amazing that anyone would want to STEAL tips. That's beyond stupid.
I never held to the "You have to tip good because they live on tips" argument, though. I've worked those jobs and, while tips were nice, when my budget was that tight, I looked for a job that paid more or let me work more hours. Tips are to be given based on service... that's the point of a tip.
One should never let their budget grow so large that they're basing it on something as fluid as a tip. And we, the public, ought not be guilted into tipping based on their condition.
That said, I do tip fairly well, starting at 30% and going up or down based on quality of service. However, it isn't based on any compulsion I feel that someone needs a tip because they work a certain job. Starbucks is an example. I don't tip at Starbucks. You're mixing me up an overpriced coffee, then you hand it to me. If you'd let me behind the counter, I'd do it myself. The list of people we're supposed to tip goes up and up.... Too few question WHY we tip some of the people we do.
That story is nice and all, but not all servers scam the IRS. I actually reported ALL of my tips, not just the 8% of my sales nonsense that most people reported. So, stealing my tip jar would have been stealing, although it wouldn't in most places.
I think the whole point here was that stealing them at a place where the employees do not claim tips on their tax forms would have been legal.
Find out everything you need to know about poop here:
http://progressiveu.org/000701-everything-you-need-know-about-poop