Fair Tips — pre-tax tip calculator with automatic sales tax lookup
When paying at restaurant you know the iPad they spin around at the counter. It shows one number — the total, tax already baked in — and three big buttons: 18%, 20%, 25%. Whichever one you tap, you're tipping on the tax too. In a 10% tax city that's roughly 2% more than you meant to give, on every single check.
I built Fair Tips to fix exactly that.
A — Answer (what it does)
Type in the total from the screen. Fair Tips works backwards: it pulls the sales tax rate for wherever you are, strips the tax out, and shows you the tip on the actual subtotal — plus the new grand total to type in. Tax rate comes from a bundled ZIP-code-level table (all 50 states + DC and PR), so location is a one-tap convenience, not a requirement — you can type a ZIP, a rate, or the tax amount off the receipt instead. Tip presets, a slider, round up/down, and a running counter of how much you've saved since installing. The app is most useful in the US.
B — Better (why not just use the built-in one)
Every other tip calculator I tried makes you enter the pre-tax subtotal — which is the one number the iPad never shows you. Besides, none can automatically tell the local sale tax rate. Fair Tips is built around the number you actually have. And it's the only one I've found that knows your local tax rate instead of asking you to look it up.
C — Cost
Free. One banner ad at the bottom, no interstitials, no paywalled features. $1.99 one-time in-app purchase removes the ad forever — no subscription.
App store link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fair-tips/id6502357717