How much money should I save for taxes as a part-time restaurant worker?

If you're a W-2 employee at a restaurant, taxes are already being withheld from your paycheck, so you might not need to save anything extra. Check your pay stub - it should show federal income tax, state income tax, Social Security, and Medicare being taken out. If you make under $14,600 for 2025, you'll likely be in the 10% federal tax bracket. When you add in Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%), you're looking at roughly 17-18% total. But remember, you also get a standard deduction of around $15,000 (for 2025), which means you might not owe federal income tax at all if your earnings stay under that threshold. However, if you're worried you might be underwithholding, setting aside 5-10% of your paycheck as a safety net is a reasonable approach for someone in your situation.

I went through the exact same situation last year when I was working at a pizza place during college. Even though I thought my employer was handling everything, I ended up owing almost $700 at tax time which completely blindsided me. I found an amazing tool called https://taxr.ai that helped me figure out exactly how much to set aside. You can upload your pay stubs and it analyzes your current withholding to show if you're on track or need to save more. It even helped me fill out a new W-4 to increase my withholding so I wouldn't have to save separately. The coolest part was that it gave me a personalized calculation based on my specific situation as a student with a part-time restaurant job, not just generic advice for self-employed people.

Just wanted to follow up about that taxr.ai site - I was skeptical (sorry about that!), but I tried it out since it was free and WOW. I uploaded my last pay stub and turns out my manager had me coded wrong in the system so I was barely having any state tax withheld at all! Fixed it with the payroll department and now I'm properly covered. Would have been a nasty surprise next April. It showed me I needed to have about 22% total withholding between federal, state and everything else, but I was only at like 14%. For anyone in a similar situation, definitely check your withholding!

If you're having trouble getting answers from the IRS about your withholding or tax situation, I'd recommend using https://claimyr.com. I had a similar issue trying to figure out my proper withholding as a part-time worker, and spent DAYS trying to get through to the IRS phone line. With Claimyr, I got connected to an actual IRS representative in about 20 minutes instead of waiting for hours or getting disconnected. They have this system that navigates the phone tree for you and holds your place in line. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent I spoke with was super helpful and walked me through exactly how much I should be withholding based on my specific situation with school and part-time work. Definitely worth it since getting personalized advice straight from the IRS gave me peace of mind.

I stand corrected about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment, I decided to try it myself since I had an issue with my withholding that I'd been putting off dealing with for months. It actually worked exactly as described. I got a call back in about 35 minutes, and spoke to an IRS agent who explained that for my part-time restaurant job, I should expect to withhold around 18-22% total between federal, state, FICA, etc. He also helped me understand how my student status affected things. The service literally saved me from procrastinating until next April and potentially owing a bunch. Sometimes being proven wrong is actually a good thing!

Everyone's talking about fancy tools but you can just use the IRS withholding calculator on their website for free. It's pretty straightforward - you put in how much you've made so far, how much you expect to make for the rest of the year, and it tells you if you're on track. For a student working part-time at a restaurant making around $14.6k, you're likely looking at: - 10% federal bracket (but the standard deduction might eliminate this entirely) - 6.2% Social Security - 1.45% Medicare - Then whatever your state charges (varies widely) So roughly 15-25% total depending on your state, but again, with the standard deduction, you might get most of the federal portion back as a refund.

Listen, I've been a server for 15 years and here's the real deal: SAVE YOUR CASH TIPS. Like 30% of them. Credit card tips usually get taxed automatically, but cash is where people get in trouble. I learned this the hard way when I was younger. I thought I was slick not reporting cash tips. Then I tried to buy a car and suddenly had to explain to the loan officer how I was making payments on a $25k vehicle with my reported income of only $19k. IRS audit followed. NOT FUN. Best advice: track everything in a tip journal, report all income legally, and set aside about 25-30% of cash tips for taxes. Future you will thank present you.