The Tip Shuffle

A worker card is dealt and you build the code box from your hand: up to two Treasury tipped occupation codes, or the 000 card. Quick, correct hands build streaks, and the trick hands teach the rules payers trip over: any two of three, 000 for nonqualifying work, managers in a tip pool and app drivers.

You will learn how to fill the tipped occupation code box on the 2026 W-2 and 1099sPrivacy runs in your browser; scores stay on your device

How to play

Press Deal me in. A worker card is dealt: who they are, what they do and where the tips came from, plus the form the tips go on (W-2 or a 1099).
Play up to two code cards from your hand into the code box, or the grey 000 card for work that is not on Treasury's list. Tap a played card to take it back.
Press Lock it in before the timer runs out. A correct box scores 100 points plus a speed bonus, a streak bonus for correct hands in a row, and 50 extra on the trick hands of level 3.
Twelve workers in three levels: single shift, double shift, then trick hands. Keyboard: number keys play the cards, 0 plays 000, Enter locks it in, N deals the next worker.

The real rules behind the game

From tax year 2026, every Form W-2, 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC and 1099-K that reports cash tips also carries a three digit Treasury Tipped Occupation Code (TTOC). The code goes in W-2 box 14b (with the tips in box 12, code TP), 1099-NEC box 1c, 1099-MISC box 13b or 1099-K box 1d. It tells the worker, and the IRS, whether the tips came from an occupation on Treasury's list, which decides whether they count toward the deduction for qualified tips under IRC 224.

The list. Treasury finalized 71 codes in T.D. 10044 (Treas. Reg. 1.224-1(h), table 1), grouped by hundreds: 100s beverage and food service, 200s entertainment and events, 300s hospitality and guest services, 400s home services, 500s personal services, 600s personal appearance and wellness, 700s recreation and instruction, 800s transportation and delivery. The card colors in the game follow those groups. The final list added 509 visual artists, 510 floral designers and 810 gas pump attendants. The list is closed, but the examples under each code are not: a job title that is not printed under a code can still fall within it.

The entry rules. The 2026 instructions for all four forms use the same three rules:

Up to two codes, based on the occupations the tips were received in. Two jobs in the same occupation (a personal trainer who also teaches yoga, both 608) take one code.
Three or more occupations: any two. The instructions give no rule for choosing, so the game accepts any valid pair. Keep a note of how you chose.
Any nonqualifying occupation: 000. If any tips came from an occupation not on the list, 000 must be one of the codes. With a listed occupation as well, the box holds that code and 000. The recipient instructions say that if 000 is the only code, the tips are not qualified tips.

The trick hands. Tips a manager or supervisor receives through a tip pool are not qualified tips, and restaurant manager is not a listed occupation. A manager tipped directly while doing a listed job, such as waiting tables, can have qualified tips for that work. The final list added app-based rideshare drivers to 802 and app-based delivery people to 804. Digital content creators are 209; a payment required to see the content is not a tip, but a voluntary payment after access can be. The preamble to the final regulations places hiking guides under 705, poker associates under 202, Santa Claus performers under 208 and hotel cashiers under 303; retail cashiers are not on the list. Treasury says gig workers can qualify when their occupation is on the list, and assistants and apprentices are included when they perform the same services as those in the occupation's description. Some descriptions carve work out: 207 is disc jockeys except radio, so a radio host is not on the list. The printed examples also settle cases a job title gets wrong: a sommelier is 101, a personal valet 501 and a car fuel deliverer 409.

What the game simplifies. Each worker card states the facts the code depends on. Real cases need judgment about which occupation the work fits, and the IRS has not said how to split one tip amount between 000 and a listed code, or which two of three occupations to choose. Tip amounts shown are made up. For the full rules, the 2025 penalty relief and the open questions, read the Treasury Tipped Occupation Codes guide; to look up any code and its full description, use the tipped occupation code finder.

Sources

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