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Are shoe and leather workers tips tax deductible in 2026?

Yes — shoe and leather workers are on the IRS tipped occupation list (code 611). 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 611 · Personal appearance and wellness · official title: Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers

How tipping works in this job

Shoe shining is the strongly tipped half of this code: a fixed low price for the shine and a tip on top, in cash, at an airport or hotel stand. Cobbling and repair work is tipped far less often, usually as rounding up on collection or after an unusually good restoration. Saddlery and bespoke leatherwork is essentially untipped.

The regulations say: Construct, decorate, or repair leather and leather-like products, such as luggage, shoes, and saddles. May use hand tools. Examples given: Cobbler, shoe shiner.

The thing most likely to disqualify your tips

Repair pricing and materials charges are revenue. If a customer pays $95 to have boots resoled, that is the job — the $10 they add on collection is the tip. Airport shine stands sometimes post a suggested tip on the sign, which is fine because the customer still chooses, but a stand that adds a fixed service charge has just disqualified it.

Check your own numbers

Pre-filled for shoe and leather workers. Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.

Step 1 — your occupation

Checking for Shoe and leather workers (Treasury code 611). 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

Shoe and leather workers (code 611) · 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: Repair pricing and materials charges are revenue. If a customer pays $95 to have boots resoled, that is the job — the $10 they add on collection is the tip. Airport shine stands sometimes post a suggested tip on the sign, which is fine because the customer still chooses, but a stand that adds a fixed service charge has just disqualified it.

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 shoe and leather workers

This code covers two trades that could hardly be less alike in their tipping. Shoe shining is heavily gratuity-dependent: a low fixed price for the shine itself, and a tip on top that frequently exceeds it, handed over in cash at an airport concourse, a hotel lobby or a station stand. Cobbling and leather repair is a workshop trade where a customer collects a finished job, pays an invoice, and usually leaves it at that.

The shine stand economics are worth understanding because they invert the usual pattern. The posted price is deliberately kept low; the shiner’s actual income is the tip. Regulars at a stand near an office tip generously and consistently, and business travellers passing through tip well because the amounts are trivial to them. It is all cash, it happens dozens of times a day, and no one records any of it.

Repair work generates tips at collection when a restoration exceeds expectation — boots resoled and rebuilt, a bag stitched back together, a piece of luggage saved from the bin. Everything invoiced is revenue: the resoling, the materials, the stretching, the dyeing, the rush turnaround. The tip is only what the customer adds when they see the result.

A useful line for stands that post a sign: a suggested tip is still a tip, because the customer reads the suggestion and then decides for themselves whether to follow it. A stand that instead adds a fixed service charge to every shine has converted the same money into something that does not qualify. Saddlery and bespoke leather goods sit in this code too and are effectively untipped — the customer is commissioning an object, and the price of the object is the whole transaction.

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 shoe and leather workers on the IRS tipped occupation list?
Yes. Shoe and Leather Workers and Repairers is Treasury Tipped Occupation Code 611, in the personal appearance and wellness category. The regulations describe it as: Construct, decorate, or repair leather and leather-like products, such as luggage, shoes, and saddles. May use hand tools.
What is the most common reason shoe and leather workers lose the deduction?
Repair pricing and materials charges are revenue. If a customer pays $95 to have boots resoled, that is the job — the $10 they add on collection is the tip. Airport shine stands sometimes post a suggested tip on the sign, which is fine because the customer still chooses, but a stand that adds a fixed service charge has just disqualified it.
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 personal appearance and wellness

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.