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Are roadside assistance workers tips tax deductible in 2026?

Yes — roadside assistance workers are on the IRS tipped occupation list (code 409). 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 409 · Home services · official title: Roadside Assistance Workers

How tipping works in this job

Roadside work is tipped generously relative to the time involved, because you are reaching people at genuinely bad moments, often in the dark or the cold. Cash is the norm and it happens at the roadside. Motor-club work tips less well than direct-pay callouts, because the driver has already paid a membership and often assumes it covered everything.

The regulations say: Provide on-road assistance to drivers whose vehicles have broken down. Examples given: Tow truck driver, car battery technician, tire repairer, tire changer, car fuel deliverer.

The thing most likely to disqualify your tips

Membership plans and per-mile tow charges are not tips. The motor club pays your employer under a contract; the mileage charge is a price. Only what the stranded driver decided to hand you counts, which for club work is frequently nothing.

Check your own numbers

Pre-filled for roadside assistance workers. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Step 1 — your occupation

Checking for Roadside assistance workers (Treasury code 409). 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

Roadside assistance workers (code 409) · 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: Membership plans and per-mile tow charges are not tips. The motor club pays your employer under a contract; the mileage charge is a price. Only what the stranded driver decided to hand you counts, which for club work is frequently nothing.

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 roadside assistance workers

Roadside work is tipped at a rate that surprises people outside the trade, and the reason is obvious once you have done it: you arrive at the worst moment of someone’s day, in the dark or the rain, and fix it. Drivers hand over cash at the roadside, in amounts disproportionate to the twenty minutes involved. All of it is voluntary and all of it qualifies, and essentially none of it is recorded by anyone but you.

The split that governs your figure is motor-club work versus direct-pay work. When a club dispatches you, the driver has already paid a membership and frequently believes it covered everything, so club calls tip noticeably worse than a driver who found you themselves and is paying your invoice directly. Both kinds of call can produce qualifying tips; they just produce them at very different rates, which is worth knowing if you are estimating an annual figure from a sample of shifts.

Nothing your employer bills is a tip. The hook fee, the per-mile tow charge, the after-hours uplift, the winch-out charge and the storage fee are all priced services. Drivers regularly point at a large invoice and say they have taken care of you, and they have paid the company. The qualifying money is only what they added on top, usually in cash, usually at the truck.

One occupational quirk worth flagging: this code sits under home services, alongside plumbers and electricians, rather than under transportation. That placement does not restrict roadside work to residential driveways — the description is about assisting drivers whose vehicles have broken down — but it does mean that if you also do commercial heavy recovery, yard work or repossession, that work is a different activity and does not generate qualifying tips in the way a stranded motorist does.

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 roadside assistance workers on the IRS tipped occupation list?
Yes. Roadside Assistance Workers is Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 409, in the home services category. The regulations describe it as: Provide on-road assistance to drivers whose vehicles have broken down.
What is the most common reason roadside assistance workers lose the deduction?
Membership plans and per-mile tow charges are not tips. The motor club pays your employer under a contract; the mileage charge is a price. Only what the stranded driver decided to hand you counts, which for club work is frequently nothing.
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.