DEAR DAME EVELYN , The other night my wife and I had dinner in a Financial District restaurant. Nice place, good food and service, et cetera. The bill came; it wasn't huge, and I gave the server my Visa card. A few minutes later he brought it back so I could write in the tip and sign it. I had already figured the tip in my head via the old double-the-tax-and-round-off method, which pretty reliably results in a tip of more than 15 percent, which I think is pretty reasonable. But printed on the sheet was a little tipping guide, and its 15 percent was quite a bit more than my 15 percent – not tons, but enough to be noticeable. After a moment of confusion I realized that their 15 percent included the sales tax – they wanted me to tip on the tax! That irked me. I was always taught that you tip on the pre-tax amount. So I did. But now I wonder. What do you think?

Taxed

My dear, I think, as you do, that taxes are what everyone is thinking about these days. But enough chitchat. I think, as to the matter of being asked to tip on the sales tax of a meal out, that you did right. This is shabby practice on the part of restaurants. There is at least one reason that sales chits separate the tax from the amount being taxed, and that is so tip-figurers can actually see the amount they're being asked to figure the tip on – which is easily accomplished by doubling the tax. But we live in parlous times, alas, in which little dishonesties are constantly attempted and often successful, either because people don't notice the scam or don't understand it when they do notice. (Dame Evelyn has been reading The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead, by David Callahan [Harcourt, $26], and so she has been perseverating a good deal on this general subject of late.) Neither you nor I can do much to change nefarious cultural practices. But we can do a little simply by not going along with them. To figure the tip, double the tax and disregard any other nonsense on the chit.

Tipsily,
E.G.-S.