Claims of relief for tipped workers fall short, with no permanent solution and a federal sub-minimum wage still stuck at $2.13. Workers were also promised overtime relief, yet millions remain excluded.
Horsford emphasizes that tip and overtime tax relief should cover all intended workers and not exclude groups.
Exempts Tips from Federal Income Taxes Up to a certain threshold, so that workers can keep the entirety of the tips they earn. ... The Legislation Provides Crucial Guardrails ... The TIPS Act clearly defines who qualifies as a tipped employee ... It establishes an income cap of $112,500 to ensure protections are targeted at actual service workers.
Horsford's official page says the TIPS Act would exempt tips from federal income taxes up to a threshold and add guardrails, including a tipped-employee definition and $112,500 income cap, to target the benefit to service workers.
IRS guidance updated May 6, 2026 says Public Law 119-21 was signed July 4, 2025. The no-tax-on-tips deduction is effective 2025 through 2028 for employees and self-employed individuals in IRS-identified tipped occupations, with reported qualified tips, a $25,000 cap, AGI phaseout, SSN and joint-filing requirements, and SSTB exclusions.
Latest lookback-window official guidance confirms a real but limited federal tip deduction is in place; it does not reach all workers and expires after 2028.
Treasury and IRS issued final regulations for the No Tax on Tips provision, listing more than 70 tipped occupations and defining qualified tips. Qualified tips must be cash or equivalent, received from customers or tip-sharing arrangements, voluntary, not negotiated, and service charges are excluded unless the customer can modify or disregard them.
Final regulations add guardrails and implementation detail, but also confirm the benefit is occupation-limited and excludes some payments workers may receive.
Section 70201 creates IRC section 224 for qualified tips. It caps the deduction at $25,000, phases it down above $150,000 modified AGI or $300,000 joint, limits it to cash tips in customarily tipped occupations, excludes nonvoluntary or negotiated amounts and SSTB-related tips, requires a Social Security number, directs anti-reclassification guidance, and terminates the deduction after 2028.
The enacted statute delivers some tip tax relief with guardrails, but the text itself shows limits inconsistent with reaching all workers or making the benefit permanent.
H.R.1314 was sponsored by Rep. Steven Horsford and referred to Ways and Means and Education and Workforce on February 13, 2025. The text would eliminate the separate tipped minimum wage, require tipped workers to retain tips, and allow a deduction for qualified tips from unrelated parties where the worker has no ownership stake and works in traditionally tipped occupations.
Horsford took concrete legislative action aligned with the commitment, but the bill remained introduced/referred and did not itself become law.
GovInfo lists H.R.7577 as introduced by Steven Horsford on February 13, 2026 and referred to the Committees on Ways and Means and Education and Workforce. Its full title is to adjust the minimum wage for tipped workers and to expand and make permanent the qualified tip deduction.
Horsford introduced follow-up legislation to make and broaden tip relief, but official bill status shows no enactment as of the refresh date.
Horsford said relief that is not permanent and does not reach all workers is not a solution. His office described the TIP Improvement Act as making tip tax relief permanent, fixing the marriage penalty, ensuring access through verified TINs, and putting guardrails in place so the benefit goes to workers.
The member's own statement confirms he still viewed the current policy as incomplete and was pushing additional legislation to satisfy the promise.
The House Clerk records Roll Call 190 on H.R.1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as passed 218-214 on July 3, 2025. The member list records Horsford, Democratic, Nevada, voting No.
The broader bill containing the partial tip deduction became law without Horsford's affirmative vote; this supports treating his specific all-workers and guardrails commitment as not fully delivered by his own successful legislation.