ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- New Internal Revenue Service rules for reporting tips have become a nightmare for a Rochester waitress who said she owes the government more than she makes in weekly wages.
Waitress Margaret DeRycke is hoping President Reagan will heed her cry against the new rules that have put her paycheck in the red.
The 52-year-old mother of four and her husband -- an unemployed truck driver -- have drawn up a petition to circulate among restaurant workers nationwide.
Mrs. DeRycke, who has three children still at home, took home no paycheck last week because the IRS withheld the exact amount of her earnings -- using new regulations aimed at discouraging workers from pocketing tips and not reporting them.
When Mrs. DeRycke opened this week's envelope, she found negative net pay. 'Last week I got zero,' she said. 'This week I owe $17.'
Employers are allowed to pay waiters and waitresses less than minimum wage because they make additional money through tips. In addition to her small hourly wage, Mrs. takes home about $120 in tips for the approximately 32 hours a week she works.
Her petition is titled SWETT -- Save Waiters and Waitresses from the Earnings Tips Tax. When all the signatures are in, Mrs. DeRycke plans to deliver them personally to Washington, D.C.
The new IRS rule, which went into effect Jan. 1 as part of Reagan's Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, requires restaurant owners to report at least 8 percent of gross sales as tips. Theoretically, that will induce workers to report tips they may not have reported before.
With more tip money counted as pay, more money is withheld for taxes.
And, at least in Mrs. DeRycke's case, the amount withheld is as much or more than the hourly wage restaurant workers earn from their employers.
A main criticism of the rule is that it fails to distinguish between the amount of tips earned, depending on the type of restaurant where a waiter or waitress works.
When people go to a family restaurant such as Denny's, where Mrs. DeRycke works, they tend to leave smaller tips than at a classier place.
'Different restaurants should be in different categories,' she added.
Mrs. DeRycke said she has received an overwhelming response from waiters and waitresses, adding she has had to borrow a telephone answering machine 'so I can get some sleep.'
'Alone you can't do anything, but if you get a big enough crowd, somebody's bound to hear you,' she said.
Waiters and waitresses who want petitions to circulate in their own areas may write: Margaret DeRycke, 118 Hobart St., Rochester, N.Y., 14611.
