Form 4137, Social Security and Medicare Tax on Unreported Tip Income

Plainly: this page helps most if you complete Form 4137 again for a new tax year, or you have the same employers on it as before. The form says "If married, complete a separate Form 4137 for each spouse with unreported tips," so each person has their own copy. The benefit is your name, social security number and the employer rows that stay the same. The tip totals and every calculated line belong to the year, so you enter them again. If this is your first and only Form 4137, the benefit is small.

irs.gov says "Use Form 4137 only to figure the social security and Medicare tax owed on tips you did not report to your employer, including any allocated tips shown on your Form(s) W-2 that you must report as income." The form adds "By filing this form, your social security and Medicare tips will be credited to your social security record (used to figure your benefits)" and "Don't use Form 4137 as a substitute Form W-2." RepeatForm does not decide which tips you must report.

The form says "You must file Form 4137 if you received cash and charge tips of $20 or more in a calendar month and didn't report all of those tips to your employer. You must also file Form 4137 if your Form(s) W-2, box 8, shows allocated tips that you must report as income." Read the instructions on the form to see how this applies to you.

The form has a caution for workers who got a Form 1099-MISC or 1099-NEC instead of a Form W-2: "don't use this form to report the social security and Medicare tax on that income. Instead, use Form 8919, Uncollected Social Security and Medicare Tax on Wages." RepeatForm has a page for that form: the Form 8919 page, linked below. The form also says "Don't use Form 4137 to report tips received for work covered by the Railroad Retirement Tax Act."

Line 1 has a row for each employer, with the employer's name and employer identification number, then the tips you received and the tips you reported to that employer. Those names and numbers are what usually repeat. The tip totals do not.

The form says "Attach to your tax return." Line 4 says to include the result "as income on Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR, line 1c," and line 13 says to include the tax "on Schedule 2 (Form 1040), line 5, or Form 1040-SS, Part I, line 6a." RepeatForm gives no advice on how these are reported; the instructions on the form and your return explain it.