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Texas Tip Calculator

Texas caps local sales tax and follows the federal tipped wage. Here is a calculator that starts from the Texas rate.

The line on the receipt above sales tax.

$0$1,500

Starting from 8.2% sales tax for Texas (Tax Foundation, rates as of 1 July 2026). This is a statewide average — your receipt is the rate that is exactly yours.

Sales tax in Texas

Texas's 6.25% state rate plus a 1.95% population-weighted average of city, county and transit-authority taxes, which are capped at 2% in total.

State rate
6.25%
Average local
1.95%
Combined average
8.2%

Tax Foundation — rates as of 1 July 2026.

Texas lets employers count tips toward the minimum wage

Texas follows the federal floor: a $7.25 minimum wage, of which an employer may count up to $5.12 from tips, leaving a cash wage as low as $2.13 an hour. If tips do not bring the total to $7.25, the employer has to make up the difference.

Minimum wage
$7.25
Cash wage before tips
$2.13
Maximum tip credit
$5.12

U.S. Dept. of Labor — as of 1 July 2026.

This is here because people ask about it and are often told the opposite of the truth. It is a fact about what an employer must pay, not a rule about what you should add. The amount is yours — including nothing.

What else is worth knowing in Texas

Local tax is capped, so the range is narrow

Texas charges 6.25% at state level and lets cities, counties and transit authorities add up to 2% in total. That cap is why the statewide average of 8.20% is a closer guide in Texas than a state average usually is: wherever you are, the combined rate lands between 6.25% and 8.25%.

Texas allows the full federal tip credit

Texas uses the federal minimum of $7.25 and lets an employer count up to $5.12 of it from tips, so the cash wage can be as low as $2.13 an hour. If tips do not get the total to $7.25 the employer must make up the shortfall, which is the floor rather than a target. We are stating the rule because people ask about it, not as a reason to pick any particular amount — that stays yours.

No state income tax does not mean no sales tax

Texas has no state income tax, which occasionally gets remembered as Texas being a low-tax state at the till. On sales tax it is close to the middle: the 8.20% average is above the 7.53% national figure, mostly because almost every populated part of the state levies the local maximum.

For the general question of whether to tip on tax at all, there is the tax and tip calculator. For a specific job, every service calculator has its own sourced range.

Sources & methodology

Sources reviewed: October 22, 2026

Sales-tax and wage figures are quoted from published government and research tables, with the effective date of each table shown beside it. The tipping ranges themselves are etiquette guidance and are cited separately — they describe common practice in the U.S., not an obligation, and they do not change by state.