Are home movers tips tax deductible in 2026?
Yes — home movers are on the IRS tipped occupation list (code 809). 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 809 · Transportation and delivery · official title: Home Movers
How tipping works in this job
Moving is one of the more reliably tipped manual trades: customers tip per mover at the end of the job, more on a hard move with stairs or a piano, and often buy the crew lunch on top. The cash goes to the crew leader and is split. Long-distance moves may be tipped at both ends by different crews.
The regulations say: Manually move furniture, music instruments, art, antiques, boxes, luggage, or other materials to or from a home or dwelling. Examples given: Furniture mover, packer, piano mover, art mover.
The thing most likely to disqualify your tips
Everything the moving company charges for is revenue: packing materials, stair and long-carry fees, heavy-item surcharges, fuel. Customers frequently point at the stair fee and say they already took care of the crew. They did not — the qualifying tip is the cash handed to the crew at the end.
Check your own numbers
Pre-filled for home movers. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Step 1 — your occupation
Checking for Home movers (Treasury code 809). 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.
Step 3 — your tips and income
The phase-out runs on modified AGI, which for most people is the same as AGI.
3 questions left to answer.
OBBBA Deductions · obbbadeductions.com
Tips deduction worksheet — tax year 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: Everything the moving company charges for is revenue: packing materials, stair and long-carry fees, heavy-item surcharges, fuel. Customers frequently point at the stair fee and say they already took care of the crew. They did not — the qualifying tip is the cash handed to the crew at the end.
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.
How this applies to home movers
Moving is among the most reliably tipped manual trades in the country, and the convention is per mover rather than per job. A household that has watched four people carry their life down three flights of stairs will hand over cash at the end, sized to the crew, and often buy lunch partway through as well. Long, hard, hot moves produce more; a two-hour studio move produces less.
The cash almost always goes to the crew leader and is divided afterwards. Only your own share is your qualifying tip. Where the split is uneven — a larger portion to the leader who drove and handled the paperwork — the arrangement your crew actually runs is the one that governs, not an even division on paper.
Lunch is worth a specific mention because of how the rule is drawn. A qualifying tip has to be paid in cash or a cash equivalent, so pizza bought for the crew is a kindness that sits entirely outside this deduction. Cash handed over at the end is a tip; food, drinks and a case of beer are not, however welcome they were at the time.
Long-distance moves generate two separate tipping events with two different crews — one at the origin loading, one at the destination unloading, sometimes weeks apart and sometimes involving people who never meet. Each crew is tipped for its own day. Everything the company charges is revenue and none of it reaches this deduction: packing materials, stair carries, long carries, shuttle fees, heavy-item surcharges for pianos and safes, fuel and valuation coverage. Customers regularly gesture at a stair fee and say the crew has already been looked after, and it is the company that has been paid.
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 home movers on the IRS tipped occupation list?
- Yes. Home Movers is Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 809, in the transportation and delivery category. The regulations describe it as: Manually move furniture, music instruments, art, antiques, boxes, luggage, or other materials to or from a home or dwelling.
- What is the most common reason home movers lose the deduction?
- Everything the moving company charges for is revenue: packing materials, stair and long-carry fees, heavy-item surcharges, fuel. Customers frequently point at the stair fee and say they already took care of the crew. They did not — the qualifying tip is the cash handed to the crew at the end.
- 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 transportation and delivery
- 810
Gas pump attendants
You pump fuel for customers, and may clean windshields or check oil and tyres while doing it.
- 801
Parking and valet attendants
You park and retrieve customers’ cars, or manage a parking lot or garage.
- 802
Taxi and rideshare drivers
You drive passengers — as a cab driver, a chauffeur, or on a rideshare app.
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.