Tip of the Week

April 1, 2013

A tax-related tip

As a good math exercise, have your child prepare your taxes for you. Just kidding — April Fools! Here’s a real tax-related tip: when your family is out to dinner and the check arrives, have your child practice her mental math skills by helping you figure out the tip. With current MA sales tax at 6.25%, you can simply triple the tax and you’ll be leaving a reasonable tip of 18.75%. If service was terrific and you want to leave 20%, look at the pre-tax total, figure out what 10% of it is (by moving the decimal point one place to the left) and then double it. For younger children, you can round the numbers to the nearest whole number and go from there. And if you round up, your server may be forever grateful!