Yeah, you shouldn't tip on the tax, that has nothing to do with the food or service.

Just playing devil's advocate but that's 0.40 to you, but to a server who might wait on 100 people a week, that's $40.

I don't care what people think, I'm still doing 10% for okay, 15% for good, and 20% for great.

It's not my job to give servers a raise. The food prices have already exploded, they are already getting more in tips just because the base cost went up

My $10 meal and 15% tip ($1.50) is now a $15 meal with a 15% tip ($2.25) which would have been a 22.5% at previous prices. They already come out ahead in that scenario without tip percentages increasing.

Which is insane, it's a percentage, compensation for inflation is baked in.

Probably nothing, but it just makes sense to tip on the actual bill. Why am I tipping the government tax?

So now I have to figure the 25% tip before tax, then the 22% after tax, then decide which I want to pay, etc. Just tip on the pretax amount. Why is that controversial? How is that "losing rationality?"

Why does this require any discussion? You want to pay a tip on the tax, go wild. I've used my method for decades, and my servers get tipped well. I don't think I've lost any rationality.