A customer tipped with a $25 amazon gift card at a restaurant in a viral TikTok, sparking a debate in the comments section over tipping policies.
Captioned "Holidays left us broke," @kaittwest's 13-second video shows the man she was dining with putting the $25 gift card on the bill. The video got over 88,300 views since being posted on Monday. "He asked if he could tip with a Amazon gift card," the text overlay and text-to-speech effect note.
The receipt shows a total bill of $95.24, which means that a $25 gift card is valued over a 20% tip of $17.19. Although some commenters were concerned the gift card had already been redeemed, the codes on Amazon gift cards can only be used once, so an intact card should mean an intact value.
The clip caused a massive rift in the comments section.
Some of commenters pointed out that $25 is more than a 20% tip.
"That's actually really generous," @tarbuckscoffee said.
"As a waitress I would love it! Lol $25 that's more than 20% too," @the_ggs said.
Others criticized the move, noting that gift cards don't pay the bills.
"As a waitress no, I need bills paid not Amazon," says @jess11simone.
"People really going out to eat when they don't have any money huh," says @user1774190931545.
Unlike tips, which are officially counted as taxable wages, "gifts" up to $13,000 are non-taxable. This means that on top of getting a 23% tip, the worker won't be taxed on the gift card.
The Daily Dot reached out to @kaittwest via TikTok direct message for comment.
Editor's note: Due to a technical error, our original message to this TikToker may not have been delivered. We have since reached out.
