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    "headline": "Applebee’s diner’s TikTok shows a 20% kiosk tip of $11.30 on a $49.49 bill, worked out after tax",
    "description": "The tablet's small print said tips are calculated after tax and before discounts. On a $56.50 after-tax total, 20% is exactly $11.30, about $1.40 more than the diner expected.",
    "datePublished": "2026-10-31T18:19:00+00:00",
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    "articleBody": "The check said $49.49. The tablet’s 20% button said $11.30. So an Applebee’s diner in Riverside, California, pulled out his phone, ran the numbers himself and filmed the result for TikTok. The clip, posted in late June by the account @jdmacias77, was the creator’s very first video. Its on-screen text accused the chain of “stealing” tips, and his caption laid out the complaint: “the math didn’t feel right so I did the calculation for each tip option and found that all the options take more than they should.” In the video he walks through it: “If I wanna tip 20% of my $49.49 … total. It gives me a tip total of $11.30. When I do the math on my phone, it’s actually $9.89.” The small print on the screen His own footage held the answer. The tabletop kiosk carried a line of text that many viewers spotted in the comments: “Tip is calculated after tax and before discounts.” Once tax was added, the meal came to $56.50. Twenty percent of $56.50 is exactly $11.30, so the screen was doing what it said. It was simply starting from a bigger number than the diner was. That did not calm everyone down. “Why are we tipping on tax? When did this start?” one viewer asked. Others said they would carry cash and hand it straight to their server. Badiyaa’s math: how big is the gap? Here is the working, using only the figures shown in the clip: 20% of the $49.49 he expected to tip on: $49.49 x 0.20 = $9.90 (he quoted $9.89). 20% of the $56.50 after-tax total the kiosk used: $56.50 x 0.20 = $11.30. Difference on one meal: $11.30 – $9.90 = $1.40, which works out to the tablet’s “20%” being about 22.8% of the $49.49 figure. A diner who eats out once a week on similar checks would hand over roughly $72.80 a year extra by tapping the preset button instead of entering a custom amount ($1.40 x 52). Not the first Applebee’s tablet to cause a double take A year earlier, in June 2025, another TikToker, @utzfactor, filmed a different Applebee’s kiosk suggesting $13.14 as a 20% tip on a $47.72 bill and asked, “Since when is 20% of $47 $13?” That gap was bigger, and the same line about tax and discounts was on screen. Reverse the math and $13.14 is 20% of $65.70, about $18 more than the bill he was shown. Commenters suggested a coupon or promo had been subtracted from his check while the tip was still worked out on the full, pre-discount price. Calculating suggested tips on the after-tax total is not illegal, and many payment systems let restaurant owners choose that setting. Etiquette guidance has long said diners only need to tip on the food and drink subtotal, since the server never sees any of the sales tax. Badiyaa covered a sharper version of the same frustration on Tuesday, October 27, when an airport self-checkout asked a traveler for an 18% tip on a $6.49 bottle of water. How to tip the amount you actually meant Skip the preset buttons and pick the “Custom Tip” or “Other” option most kiosks offer. Find the subtotal before tax on the receipt, multiply it by your chosen rate (0.20 for 20%), and type that figure in. On a $49.49 subtotal, that means entering $9.90 rather than accepting $11.30. Applebee’s has not publicly commented on either video. Writers who first covered the clips said they had emailed the chain, and none of their reports includes a reply. Image: m01229, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.",
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