Question: I understand some restaurants have policies to automatically calculate and include gratuity on the meal tab. For example, Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot at Ward Centre charges 18 percent gratuity if we have more than six people. However, would the 18 percent gratuity be calculated on the taxable meal only or on the total to include the 4.712 percent general excise tax? In other words, would we pay 18 percent gratuity on the taxes?

Answer: No, but the tip is subject to the tax. If a restaurant charges a mandatory gratuity for its meals, then it must include that amount in its gross receipts, which are subject to the state’s general excise tax, said Mallory Fujitani, spokeswoman for the state Department of Taxation.

If tipping is optional, the GET isn’t applied.

If a customer has a choice in whether to leave a tip, then a tip is treated as a gift that is not subject to the tax under section 237-24(4) of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, Fujitani explained.

"Since mandatory gratuity charges are not gifts, a restaurant cannot deduct or otherwise exempt these amounts from its gross receipts for GET purposes," she said.

Section 237-24 lists the "amounts not taxable," which includes "the value of all property of every kind and sort acquired by gift bequest, or devise, and the value of all property acquired by descent or inheritance."

See 1.usa.gov/1KNduYV for other amounts that are exempt from general excise taxes.

Charging a mandatory gratuity for groups of a certain size is a long-standing practice in the restaurant industry.

However, the state Office of Consumer Protection says you must be told in advance that such a tip will be part of the bill.

Question: Can you please reprint information on where to write to stop receiving unwanted junk mail? I kept the information from your column from a few years ago but am unable to locate it now.

Answer: You can reduce the flow of unsolicited and unwanted mail by registering with the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service.

Send a $1 processing fee with your name and address to DMAchoice, Direct Marketing Association, P.O. Box 643, Carmel, NY 10512.

The Direct Marketing Association is a nonprofit trade organization that represents nearly 3,600 business and nonprofit organizations that send direct mail nationwide.

By registering with the DMA, unsolicited mail from members will stop for five years.

You can also opt out of receiving unsolicited commercial email from DMA members by using the association’s email preference service, eMPS. Go to dmachoice.org. Registration is free and good for six years.

For more information, go to thedma.org/services/consumer-help.

Another source for information about stopping unwanted mail, phone calls and email is the Federal Trade Commission: 1.usa.gov/1jiCUyl.

Auwe

To whoever stole two box turtles and their little home from the front yard of a home on Lalawai Drive in Halawa Heights. This happened on a weekday night around the third week in May. The whole neighborhood, from young to old, enjoyed watching them in their enclosure. If you did it as a prank, please return them unharmed. Obviously you aren’t familiar with the commandment "Thou shall not steal." Remember, whatever goes around comes around. — Neighbors on Lalawai Drive

Mahalo

To the Honolulu Police Department. After my letter to the editor about being yelled at by policemen at construction sites when I couldn’t understand their hand motions was published in the Star-Advertiser, a concerned police sergeant was at my door the next morning, asking where and when the incidents had happened and how to report if it happened again. I was impressed with the caring response. — Wally Story

Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.