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Beverage and Food Service
Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers
TTOC 104 · Box 14b expected code 104
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TTOC tip-deduction decoder
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Statute-cited expansion
Statute and trade context.
Enabling statute: P.L. 119-21 §70201 (qualified tips) [1], codified at 26 USC §224[2].
TTOC list source: 26 CFR §1.224-1 (TD 10044, 91 FR 19026, April 13, 2026); the list places this trade in the 100s (Beverage and Food Service) category at code 104[3].
Transition relief: IRS Notice 2025-69 §3 (qualified-tips reporting transition relief for tax year 2025) and §6 (SSTB transition relief while §1.224-1(g) is reserved) [4][5].
W-2 mechanics: Box 14b carries the TTOC under §6051(a)(18); Box 12 code TP carries the cash-tip dollar figure[6][7].
Tip-pool mechanics for support roles
Most bussers, runners, and bar backs receive tip income through tip-pool allocations — the percentage that servers and bartenders are required by house rules (and in some states, by statute) to share with support staff. The pool allocation paid to you is the qualified-tips figure for §224 purposes, not the gross pool collected by the restaurant.
For tax year 2026, your W-2 should show TTOC 104 in Box 14b and the dollar figure for your pool allocation in Box 12 code TP. If you also work a server shift on slow nights, Box 14b can hold both TTOC 104 and TTOC 102.
The federal Fair Labor Standards Act tip-credit rules and various state laws constrain how tip pools may be structured (which employees may participate, what percentage cap applies). Those rules affect what the pool looks like, not the §224 mechanics — once the pool allocation is paid to you, it's a qualified tip subject to the $25,000 cap.
Box 14b verification tips for bussers, runners, bar backs, and cafeteria attendants
When a tax year 2026 W-2 arrives in January 2027, the first sanity check for a TTOC 104 worker is whether Box 14b carries 104 at all. The 100s Beverage and Food Service category is the area where payroll templates most often correctly emit a TTOC code (because servers and bartenders have always been canonical tipped roles), but support staff are sometimes still defaulted to TTOC 000 because pre-OBBBA tip-credit rules treated bussers and runners as edge cases. TD 10044 lists Dining Room and Cafeteria Attendants and Bartender Helpers explicitly as TTOC 104; that is the citation to point payroll at if Box 14b is wrong or blank.
The second sanity check is the dollar figure in Box 12 code TP. The TP figure for support staff should reflect the tip-pool allocation actually paid to the employee for the year, not the gross pool that flowed through the restaurant. If a busser's W-2 shows the gross pool figure (which would inflate the busser's tip wages by the share that flowed to servers and bartenders), payroll has miscoded the allocation; request a corrected W-2c.
The third sanity check is split-shift handling. A worker who bussed three nights a week and ran food two nights a week, both for the same restaurant, can have both TTOC 104 (the dominant code) and TTOC 102 in Box 14b — up to two TTOCs per W-2 per the IRS 2026 General Instructions. If the W-2 has only one code and the worker held both roles, ask payroll which code captures the dominant share of tipped hours and confirm the allocation.
If the employer cannot or will not issue a W-2c within a reasonable period (commonly cited as 30 days in the Form 4852 instructions), the IRS-blessed escalation is Form 4852 (Substitute for Form W-2). Reconstruct the tip-pool allocation from paystubs and the personal tip log, attach Form 4852 to the return, and explain the efforts made to obtain a corrected W-2 from the employer. The §224 deduction stands on the underlying cash-tip figure paid to the worker, not on the Box 14b code itself — documentation of the actual pool allocation is the load-bearing evidence.
Tipping conventions for this trade
Tipping conventions for this trade vary by venue, region, and service tier.
Common payroll mistakes
Gross pool reported instead of allocation
The pool allocation paid to you — not the gross pool collected by the restaurant — is the §224 figure. Request a corrected W-2c if the gross is reported.
Cafeteria attendants flagged as non-tipped
Cafeteria attendants in venues that customarily receive tip jars qualify under TTOC 104. Some payroll systems default cafeteria SOC codes to TTOC 000.
Actionable artifact
Next steps for dining room and cafeteria attendants and bartender helpers.
If you filed your 2025 return without the §224 deduction, the amend window under §6511(a) generally runs through April 15, 2029. Form 1040-X with Schedule 1-A is the path.[1]
Amend walkthrough →For tax year 2026 onward, your W-2 should show TTOC 104 in Box 14b. If it shows 000 or is blank, the validator helps you decide whether to request a Form W-2c.[1]
Box 14b validator →