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    Easy Calculation of Restaurant Tips


    Typically, calculating restaurant tips is simpler using the provided sales tax rather than meal amount excluding tax.  For state tax of 5%, a 15% tip may be easily calculated by multiplying the number by three.

    While some rates do not evenly divide 15, they may still be used to leave other percentages such as 18%, 20%, etc.  As an example, the amount corresponding to generous tip of 20% may by easily computed by multiplying 4% sales tax by five.

    A listing of sale tax by state is presented below:

    Alabama
    4.00
    Arizona
    5.60
    Arkansas
    6.00
    California
    6.25
    Colorado
    2.90
    Connecticut
    6.00
    District of Columbia
    5.75
    Florida
    6.00
    Georgia
    4.00
    Hawaii
    4.00
    Idaho
    6.00
    Illinois
    6.25
    Indiana
    6.00
    Iowa
    5.00
    Kansas
    5.30
    Kentucky
    6.00
    Louisiana
    4.00
    Maine
    5.00
    Maryland
    6.00
    Massachusetts
    5.00
    Michigan
    6.00
    Minnesota
    6.50
    Mississippi
    7.00
    Missouri
    4.225
    Nebraska
    5.50
    Nevada
    6.50
    New Jersey
    6.00
    New Mexico
    5.00
    New York
    4.25
    North Carolina
    4.50
    North Dakota
    5.00
    Ohio
    6.00
    Oklahoma
    4.50
    Pennsylvania
    6.00
    Rhode Island
    7.00
    South Carolina
    5.00
    South Dakota
    4.00
    Tennessee
    7.00
    Texas
    6.25
    Utah
    4.75
    Vermont
    6.00
    Virginia
    4.00
    Washington
    6.50
    West Virginia
    6.00
    Wisconsin
    5.00
    Wyoming
    4.00

    Example:

    Without a calcular, compute the 15% tip on a check with a total of $52.40 not including a 5% sales tax of $2.62.

    Solution:

    The 15% tip may be computed by simply multiplying the 5% tax amount by three:

    $2.62 x 3 = $7.86