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Are golf caddies tips tax deductible in 2026?

Yes — golf caddies are on the IRS tipped occupation list (code 701). 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 701 · Recreation and instruction · official title: Golf Caddies

How tipping works in this job

Caddie economics are almost entirely tips. The club sets a caddie fee that the golfer pays at the pro shop, and the tip on top of it, handed over in cash on the eighteenth green, is usually larger than the fee itself. It is intensely seasonal and weather-dependent, and at most clubs no one records any of it but you.

The regulations say: Assist a golfer during a round of golf by providing practical support and strategic advice. May carry the golfer’s bag, manage their clubs, offer guidance on club selection or course strategy. Examples given: Golf caddie, golf cart attendant.

The thing most likely to disqualify your tips

The caddie fee itself is not a tip. It is a price set by the club, collected by the club, and passed to you as compensation for the loop — and it is often the number caddies quote when asked what they earned. Only the cash the golfer chose to add qualifies, which makes a per-round log the single most useful thing a caddie can keep.

Check your own numbers

Pre-filled for golf caddies. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Step 1 — your occupation

Checking for Golf caddies (Treasury code 701). 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

Golf caddies (code 701) · 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: The caddie fee itself is not a tip. It is a price set by the club, collected by the club, and passed to you as compensation for the loop — and it is often the number caddies quote when asked what they earned. Only the cash the golfer chose to add qualifies, which makes a per-round log the single most useful thing a caddie can keep.

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 golf caddies

Caddying is the clearest example on the whole list of an occupation where the tip is not the extra, it is the income. Clubs typically set a caddie fee that the golfer pays at the pro shop, and the cash handed over on the eighteenth green routinely exceeds it. A caddie asked what they earn will usually quote a per-loop figure that blends the two, which is precisely the number that has to be taken apart for this deduction.

The fee is not a qualifying tip. It is a price set by the club, collected by the club, and passed to you as compensation for the round. Whether it reaches you as wages or as a payment to you as a contractor varies by club, but either way it was not an amount the golfer chose. The tip is what the player decided to add, and only that.

Everything about caddie work makes documentation hard and important in equal measure. It is cash. It is seasonal, so a good year and a bad year differ by weather as much as by effort. It is intensely variable by player, by course and by whether you looped once or twice that day. And in most clubs nobody records any of it — the caddie master knows who went out, not what came back.

The fix is a per-loop line in a notebook or a phone note: date, course, fee, tip. Four fields, written down as you walk in. At a club where you might do 200 loops in a season, that produces an annual figure you can actually stand behind, and it separates the fee from the tip at the only moment when you reliably know the difference. Caddies who wait until April end up estimating, and an estimate built out of a remembered average is exactly the kind of figure that falls apart under questioning.

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 golf caddies on the IRS tipped occupation list?
Yes. Golf Caddies is Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 701, in the recreation and instruction category. The regulations describe it as: Assist a golfer during a round of golf by providing practical support and strategic advice. May carry the golfer’s bag, manage their clubs, offer guidance on club selection or course strategy.
What is the most common reason golf caddies lose the deduction?
The caddie fee itself is not a tip. It is a price set by the club, collected by the club, and passed to you as compensation for the loop — and it is often the number caddies quote when asked what they earned. Only the cash the golfer chose to add qualifies, which makes a per-round log the single most useful thing a caddie can keep.
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 recreation and instruction

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.