All occupationsPersonal Appearance and Wellness
Personal Appearance and Wellness
Manicurists and Pedicurists
TTOC 605 · Box 14b expected code 605
Nail technicians — manicurists and pedicurists — sit in TTOC 605. The trade is structurally similar to hairdressing for §224 purposes: licensed personal-services work in the 600s Personal Appearance and Wellness bucket, customarily tipped, no SSTB-field overlap in §199A(d)(2). The booth-rental question is the wrinkle.[1][2][3]
Personalized calculation
Calculate your deduction.
The decoder below is pre-filled to Manicurists and Pedicurists (TTOC 605). Enter your tax year, filing status, wages, and MAGI to see the cap and phase-out math run against your numbers. Compute is 100% client-side — nothing about your wages or MAGI leaves this page.
TTOC tip-deduction decoder
Pick an occupation, set your tax year and filing status, and enter your wages and MAGI to see the deduction math. The output here will update once you press Calculate.
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 600s (Personal Appearance and Wellness) category at code 605[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].
Salon-employee vs booth-rental mechanics
For W-2 nail techs at chain salons (Regis, Ulta, others) and traditional employer-run nail salons, Box 14b TTOC 605 and Box 12 code TP are the canonical mechanics. The §224 deduction is computed on Schedule 1-A subject to the $25,000 cap and MAGI phase-out.
For booth-rental nail techs at salons that lease chairs or stations, the tax filing path is Schedule C / sole proprietor. The §224 deduction is available; the cash-tip figure comes from the tech's appointment ledger plus credit-card processor reports plus cash log. Same caps and phase-out apply.
Box 14b verification tips for nail technicians
Nail-tech payroll templates have generally adopted TTOC 605 cleanly because manicurists and pedicurists were on the proposed regulation REG-110032-25 (not added in the final reg) and because the role's tipped-occupation status was never seriously contested. When a tax year 2026 W-2 arrives, the first sanity check is whether Box 14b carries 605. The most common error mode is not 000 — it's a code mismatch where the salon emitted TTOC 603 (Barbers, Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists) for a nail tech who happened to also be cosmetology-licensed. Pick the code that matches the dominant tipped role, not the credential.
The second sanity check is the booth-rental classification. Nail salons commonly mix W-2 employees and booth-rental sole proprietors in the same physical space — the same tech may receive a W-2 from the salon for some shifts and operate as Schedule C for others (an unusual but real arrangement). The §224 deduction is available either way, but the inputs are different: W-2 path uses Box 12 code TP; Schedule C path uses the tech's own appointment ledger plus credit-card-processor tip reports plus cash log. Resolve the classification first under the IRS three-prong control test before working the §224 math.
The third sanity check is the salon-add gratuity question. Many nail salons display a suggested-tip prompt on the credit-card terminal at checkout (a 15%/18%/20% prompt the customer can override or skip). That prompt produces qualified tips because the customer was free to set the amount, including zero. A salon that bundles a mandatory service charge into the price of premium services (gel polish, dip, extensions) is creating wages, not tips — that line item is Box 1 wages, not Box 12 code TP.
If the salon cannot or will not issue a W-2c within a reasonable period, the IRS-blessed escalation is Form 4852 (Substitute for Form W-2). Reconstruct reported tip wages from paystubs, the salon's daily tip-out slips, and the credit-card processor's tip-line export, attach Form 4852 to the return, and explain the efforts made to obtain a corrected W-2.
Tipping conventions for this trade
Tipping conventions for this trade vary by venue, region, and service tier.
Common payroll mistakes
Booth-rental misclassified
If the salon controls your schedule and supplies, you may be a misclassified W-2; if you control all those, you may be a misclassified booth renter. Resolve classification first.
Service charges miscoded as tips
Mandatory salon-add gratuities are wages, not qualified tips. The customer must be free to set the amount.
Actionable artifact
Next steps for manicurists and pedicurists.
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 605 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 →