Form 4137 (2020)
Page 2
Allocated tips. You must report all your tips from 2020,
including both cash tips and noncash tips, as income on Form
1040 or 1040-SR, line 1; or Form 1040-NR, line 1a. Any tips you
reported to your employer in 2020 are included in the wages
shown on your Form W-2, box 1. Add to the amount in box 1
only the tips you received in 2020 and didn’t report to your
employer. This should include any allocated tips shown on your
Form(s) W-2, box 8, unless you have adequate records to show
that your unreported tips are less than the amount in box 8.
Although allocated tips are shown on your Form W-2, they
aren’t included in box 1 on that form and no tax is withheld from
these tips.
Tips you must report to your employer. If you receive $20 or
more in cash tips, you must report 100% of those tips to your
employer through a written report. Cash tips include tips paid by
cash, check, debit card, and credit card. The written report
should include tips your employer paid to you for charge
customers, tips you received directly from customers, and tips
you received from other employees under any tip-sharing
arrangement. If, in any month, you worked for two or more
employers and received tips while working for each, the $20 rule
applies separately to the tips you received while working for
each employer and not to the total you received. You must
report your tips to your employer by the 10th day of the month
following the month you received them. If the 10th day of the
month falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, give your
employer the report by the next business day. For example,
because July 10, 2021, is a Saturday, you must report your tips
received in June 2021 by July 12, 2021.
Employees subject to the Railroad Retirement Tax Act. Don’t
use Form 4137 to report tips received for work covered by the
Railroad Retirement Tax Act. To get railroad retirement credit,
you must report these tips to your employer.
Payment of tax. Tips you reported to your employer are subject
to social security and Medicare tax (or railroad retirement tax),
Additional Medicare Tax, and income tax withholding. Your
employer collects these taxes from wages (excluding tips) or
other funds of yours available to cover them. If your wages
weren’t enough to cover these taxes, you may have given your
employer the additional amounts needed. Your Form W-2 will
include the tips you reported to your employer and the taxes
withheld. If there wasn’t enough money to cover the social
security and Medicare tax (or railroad retirement tax), your Form
W-2 will also show the uncollected tax due in box 12 with codes
A and B. See the instructions for Schedule 2 (Form 1040), line 8,
to see how to report the tax due. If you worked in American
Samoa, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, the amount of
uncollected tax due is identified in box 12 on Form W-2AS,
W-2GU, or W-2VI with codes A and B. If you worked in Puerto
Rico, Form 499R-2/W-2PR shows the uncollected tax due in the
boxes for “Seguro Social no Retenido en Propinas - Uncollected
Social Security Tax on Tips” and “Contrib. Medicare no
Retenida en Propinas - Uncollected Medicare Tax on Tips.”
Unlike the uncollected portion of the regular (1.45%) Medicare
tax, the uncollected Additional Medicare Tax isn’t reported on
Form W-2, box 12, with code B.
Penalty for not reporting tips. If you didn’t report tips to your
employer as required, you may be charged a penalty equal to
50% of the social security, Medicare, and Additional Medicare
Taxes due on those tips. You can avoid this penalty if you can
show (in a statement attached to your return) that your failure to
report tips to your employer was due to reasonable cause and
not due to willful neglect.
Additional information. See Pub. 531, Reporting Tip Income.
See Rev. Rul. 2012-18 for guidance on taxes imposed on tips
and the difference between tips and service charges. You can
find Rev. Rul. 2012-18, 2012-26 I.R.B. 1032, at
www.irs.gov/irb/2012-26_IRB#RR-2012-18.
Specific Instructions
Line 1. Complete a separate row for each employer. If you had
more than five employers in 2020, attach a statement that
contains all of the information (and in a similar format) as
required on Form 4137, line 1, or complete and attach line 1 of
additional Form(s) 4137. Complete lines 2 through 13 on only
one Form 4137. The line 2 and line 3 amounts on that Form
4137 should be the combined totals of all your Forms 4137 and
attached statements. Include your name, social security
number, and calendar year (2020) on the top of any attachment.
Column (a). Enter your employer’s name exactly as shown on
your Form W-2.
Column (b). For each employer’s name you entered in column
(a), enter the employer identification number (EIN) or the words
“Applied For” exactly as shown on your Form W-2.
Columns (c) and (d). Include all cash and charge tips you
received. All of the following tips must be included.
• Total tips you reported to your employer on time. Tips you
reported, as required, by the 10th day of the month following
the month you received them are considered income in the
month you reported them. For example, tips you received in
December 2019 that you reported to your employer after
December 31, 2019, but by January 10, 2020, are considered
income in 2020 and should be included on your 2020 Form W-2
and reported on Form 4137, line 1. Report these tips in column
(d).
• Tips you received in December 2020 that you reported to
your employer after December 31, 2020, but by January 10,
2021, are considered income in 2021. Don’t include these tips
on line 1 for 2020. Instead, report these tips on line 1, column
(d), on your 2021 Form 4137.
• Tips you didn’t report to your employer on time. Report these
tips in column (d).
• Tips you didn’t report at all (include any allocated tips (see
Allocated tips, earlier) shown in box 8 on your Form(s) W-2
unless you can prove that your unreported tips are less than the
amount in box 8). Report these tips in column (c). These tips are
considered income to you in the month you actually received
them. For example, tips you received in December 2020 that
you reported to your employer after January 10, 2021, are
considered income in 2020 because you didn’t report them to
your employer on time.
• Tips you received that you weren’t required to report to your
employer because they totaled less than $20 during the month.
Report these tips in column (c).
Line 5. Enter only the tips you weren’t required to report to your
employer because the total received was less than $20 in a
calendar month. These tips aren’t subject to social security and
Medicare tax.
Line 6. Enter this amount on Form 8959, line 2, if you’re
required to file that form.
Line 8. For railroad retirement (RRTA) compensation, don’t
include an amount greater than $137,700, which is the amount
subject to the 6.2% rate for 2020.
Line 10. If line 6 includes tips you received for work you did as a
federal, state, or local government employee and your pay was
subject only to the 1.45% Medicare tax, subtract the amount of
those tips from the line 6 amount only for the purpose of
comparing lines 6 and 9. Don’t reduce the actual entry on line 6.
Enter “1.45% tips” and the amount you subtracted on the
dotted line next to line 10.
