Guides / W-2 Box 12 Code TP

By NorseHorse. Updated October 16, 2026. General information, not tax advice; confirm your situation with a tax professional.

On your 2026 W-2, box 12 code TP is the total cash tips you reported to that employer, code TT is your qualified overtime pay, and box 14b holds up to two Treasury Tipped Occupation Codes that tell you whether those tips can be deducted. All three are new for tax year 2026, and you use them on Schedule 1-A of Form 1040 to claim the tips and overtime deductions. The TP amount is not extra income: the tips you reported are already in box 1.

The three new items

Box 14 was split to make room. Box 14a, labeled "Other," holds whatever your employer used to put in box 14.

How TP fits with boxes 1, 5, 7 and 8

• Box 1, wages, tips, other compensation: includes the total tips you reported to your employer, but not allocated tips. Your TP tips are part of this number, not on top of it.
• Box 5, Medicare wages and tips: your reported tips are included here too.
• Box 7, Social Security tips: your reported tips, counted for Social Security tax. Social Security tax stops at the wage base, $184,500 for 2026, so once boxes 3 and 7 together reach it, box 7 can show less than all of your tips.
• Box 8, allocated tips: tips your employer assigned to you on top of what you reported, because your reported tips came in under your share of 8 percent of food and drink sales. They are not included in boxes 1, 3, 5 or 7, and since TP is tips reported to the employer, they aren't in TP either. You must file Form 4137 to report at least the allocated amount unless your records show you received less. See tip allocation and Form 8027.

Why TP and box 7 might not match

TP and box 7 measure different things. Box 7 is tied to Social Security tax, and the IRS has already said it can fall short of your actual tips. Its 2025 guidance pointed out that once boxes 3 and 7 together hit the wage base, box 7 may not include all your cash tips. The 2025 Schedule 1-A also warned about tips not subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes. TP is defined simply as the total cash tips reported to the employer, with no wage base language. So TP higher than box 7 has a known explanation.

TP lower than box 7 is harder to explain. The employee instructions on the 2026 W-2 don't give a reason for it. If yours is lower, ask payroll how they figured it before you file. The 2026 draft Schedule 1-A starts from TP, not box 7 (it uses the Form 4137 figure instead only if you file one and it's larger), so a low TP means a smaller deduction.

Box 14b occupation codes

The codes come from the Treasury list of 71 occupations in eight categories. The first digit is the category: 100s are beverage and food service, 600s personal appearance and wellness, 800s transportation and delivery. Common ones for readers here: 101 bartenders, 102 wait staff, 103 non-restaurant food or beverage servers, 105 chefs and cooks, 107 fast food and counter workers, 109 host staff, 603 barbers, hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists, 605 manicurists and pedicurists, 802 taxi and rideshare drivers, 804 goods delivery people.

Your employer can list up to two codes. If box 14b shows only 000, the W-2 says your cash tips are not qualified tips and you should not use the TP amount for the deduction. If you're a server and you got 000, that's an error worth fixing.

Code TT: qualified overtime

Code TT is the total qualified overtime compensation your employer paid. Qualified overtime is only the pay above your regular rate, the "and-a-half" part of time-and-a-half, that the Fair Labor Standards Act requires. It feeds Schedule 1-A Part III, where the deduction is capped at $12,500 ($25,000 if married filing jointly). Overtime is still subject to withholding and to Social Security and Medicare tax. More in No Tax on Overtime and the tipped overtime calculator.

What changed from 2025

2025 W-2s had none of these items; the forms were updated for 2026. Notice 2025-62 said the IRS would not penalize employers for leaving out separate tip amounts or occupation codes for 2025, and it states that this relief applies only to tax year 2025. Workers claiming the deduction for 2025 could instead use, under Notice 2025-69:

• the Social Security tips in W-2 box 7,
• the total of their monthly tip reports to the employer (Form 4070 or a similar form),
• a tip amount the employer voluntarily put in box 14, and
• any unreported tips on Form 4137, line 4.

For 2026 that flexibility is gone. The final regulations require qualified tips to be included in the cash tips separately reported on a statement furnished to you, which for an employee is the W-2, or reported by you on Form 4137. The looser rule, where tips did not need to be shown separately, covered only tax years beginning before January 1, 2026.

If your employer left them off

1. Ask your employer for a corrected W-2, Form W-2c. The W-2 itself tells employees to ask for one to fix any money amount reported wrong.
2. If you've contacted them and still don't have it by the end of February, call the IRS at 800-829-1040. The IRS will contact the employer and send you Form 4852, a substitute W-2.
3. If you file with Form 4852 and the corrected W-2 later differs, you must file Form 1040-X.

Don't count on Form 4852 to save the deduction. For the overtime deduction the IRS says Form 4852 does not meet the reporting requirement and an amount missing from the W-2 can't be deducted without a W-2c, and it hasn't said anything different for tips. The W-2c is the fix to push for.

Keep your own record of the tips you reported each month; it's the fastest way to show payroll a TP number is wrong. The full Schedule 1-A walk-through is in how to claim No Tax on Tips, and the tip log template is free.

Common questions

Am I taxed twice on the TP amount?

No. Box 1 already includes the tips you reported, and TP is a separate count of those same tips so you can claim the deduction.

My box 14b says 000. What does that mean?

If 000 is the only code, your employer is telling the IRS your tips are not qualified tips, and you shouldn't use the TP amount. If your job is on the Treasury list, ask for a corrected W-2.

Why are there two codes in box 14b?

Box 14b holds up to two codes for your tipped occupations, so an employer can list a second code if you worked in more than one tipped job there.

Does code TT mean my overtime is tax-free?

No. It's the amount you can deduct from income subject to federal income tax, up to the cap. Social Security and Medicare tax still apply to it.

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