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Are appliance installers and repairers tips tax deductible in 2026?

Yes — appliance installers and repairers are on the IRS tipped occupation list (code 406). Tips in this job are deductible for 2026, up to $25,000, if the customer chose the amount and could have declined.

Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 406 · Home services · official title: Home Appliance Installers and Repairers

How tipping works in this job

Delivery-and-install visits are the reliable tipping moment, particularly where a heavy appliance has to go up stairs or a tight hallway, and the tip is usually split between the two people on the truck. Repair visits are tipped less often. Where you are subcontracted by a retailer, the customer frequently assumes the retailer already paid you for the difficulty, and tips accordingly less.

The regulations say: Repair, adjust, or install all types of electric or gas household appliances, such as refrigerators, washers, dryers, and ovens. Examples given: Washing machine installer, dishwasher repairer.

The thing most likely to disqualify your tips

Haul-away and installation fees charged by the retailer are not tips, even when the customer paid them at the till specifically because you were coming. Those are the store’s charges. Only cash the customer hands you on the day qualifies.

Check your own numbers

Pre-filled for appliance installers and repairers. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Step 1 — your occupation

Checking for Appliance installers and repairers (Treasury code 406). This occupation is on the list.

Step 2 — is it actually a tip?

Answer for the money you are asking about. If some of your income is tips and some is service charges, run them separately.

Does the customer decide the amount?

A tip has to be an amount the payer chose. A percentage set by your employer or written into a contract is not.

Can the customer decline to pay it?

A tip is voluntary. If the customer had no way to refuse it, it is a charge.

Is it a mandatory service charge or auto-gratuity?

Auto-gratuity on large parties, resort service charges, contracted event gratuities.

Step 3 — your tips and income

The phase-out runs on modified AGI, which for most people is the same as AGI.

How were these tips earned?

3 questions left to answer.

OBBBA Deductions · obbbadeductions.com

Tips deduction worksheet — tax year 2026

Appliance installers and repairers (code 406) · Single · Prepared October 1, 2026

The three tests, as answered

  • Does the customer decide the amount? not answered
  • Can the customer decline to pay it? not answered
  • Is it a mandatory service charge or auto-gratuity? not answered

Answer the 3 remaining questions above for a result.

Watch out for this in your job: Haul-away and installation fees charged by the retailer are not tips, even when the customer paid them at the till specifically because you were coming. Those are the store’s charges. Only cash the customer hands you on the day qualifies.

Educational estimate only, not tax advice. It runs entirely in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere. The deduction is scheduled to expire after tax year 2028.

Estimate only, not tax advice. This site is general information, not tax advice. Figures are estimates and may not reflect the final IRS guidance for the tax year. Confirm your situation with a qualified tax professional or the IRS before filing.

Occupation list and tip tests from T.D. 10044; cap and phase-out from Schedule 1-A Part II. Figures on this site were last checked September 8, 2026. Produced by obbbadeductions.com — nothing entered into the calculator left the browser it was typed into.

How this applies to appliance installers and repairers

Delivery and installation is where this occupation earns its tips, and the variable is difficulty rather than price. A refrigerator carried up two flights and around a tight landing produces cash; the same refrigerator wheeled through a ground-floor door often does not. Homeowners are tipping for effort they watched happen, which means stairs, narrow hallways, old buildings and awkward removals are the reliable indicators of a tipped job.

Repair visits are tipped far less often, because the customer is paying to fix something that broke rather than receiving something new, and the emotional register is different. Where it happens it tends to follow a diagnosis that saved the appliance rather than condemning it.

A structural problem specific to this trade: much of the work is subcontracted from retailers. When a customer buys a washing machine from a national chain and a third-party crew delivers it, the customer has already paid the store for delivery, installation and haul-away, and they very reasonably assume the crew was paid properly out of that. They tip less as a result. None of those store charges is a tip to you regardless — they are the retailer’s revenue, and whatever the retailer pays your employer is a commercial arrangement between two businesses.

Two people on a truck means a split, usually even, taken at the last stop of the day rather than per delivery. If you work a fixed route with the same partner, agreeing how the day’s cash is divided once is easier than negotiating it at every doorstep, and it gives you a consistent basis for the figure you report at year end.

The three tests, whatever your job

  • Paid voluntarily

    The customer sets the amount and can decline to pay it.

  • Paid in cash or a cash equivalent

    Card payments and mobile payments count.

  • Received directly or through a tip pool

    Both routes qualify.

Questions

Are appliance installers and repairers on the IRS tipped occupation list?
Yes. Home Appliance Installers and Repairers is Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 406, in the home services category. The regulations describe it as: Repair, adjust, or install all types of electric or gas household appliances, such as refrigerators, washers, dryers, and ovens.
What is the most common reason appliance installers and repairers lose the deduction?
Haul-away and installation fees charged by the retailer are not tips, even when the customer paid them at the till specifically because you were coming. Those are the store’s charges. Only cash the customer hands you on the day qualifies.
How much of my tips can I deduct?
Up to $25,000 per return, whatever your filing status. The cap applies first, then the amount is reduced by $100 for every $1,000 of modified adjusted gross income above the threshold for your filing status.
Does a mandatory service charge count as a tip?
No. A mandatory service charge or automatic gratuity is not a qualifying tip, and the final regulations confirmed this explicitly. It does not qualify even when the customer cannot decline it — a qualifying tip has to be an amount the customer chose to give.

Related occupations in home services

Occupation data transcribed from T.D. 10044 — final regulations on occupations that customarily and regularly received tips, Treas. Reg. § 1.224-1(h) table 1, last verified 2026-09-08. Read the regulations.