Blue Crab Guild serves Maryland's independent restaurants — starting with the §45B FICA tip credit worth an estimated $8,000–$14,000 a year that most restaurants never claim. We turn your POS tips into a draft Form 8846 credit pack. You keep your tax professional.
Launching October 1, 2026 · first 5 restaurants · your first $200 of §45B savings is free
Enter your tipped team and see the estimated one-year credit — computed with the same draft Form 8846 math our credit packs use. Modeled conservatively.
Estimated one-year §45B FICA tip credit
$3,322.48
Same §45B math as the credit pack, modeled at the statutory $5.15/hr baseline. Dollar estimate only.
Your first $200 of §45B savings is free — it's yours to keep.
Reported tips per employee: $7,800.00/yr · creditable: $5,428.80/yr
A licensed CPA/EA reviews the method on your draft Form 8846 — including how service charges and the Social Security wage base apply. Dollar estimate only — your tax professional files the return.
Each employee keeps their own tips at a reduced tip-credit wage.
MD tipped base is $3.63. Maximum: $5.15.
Run a mix — servers direct, back-of-house pooled? This calculator models your primary model; your tax professional reconciles the split on a draft Form 8846.
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Gusto, ADP, Toast, Square — none of them prepare the §45B FICA Tip Credit. The credit dies somewhere between payroll and your CPA.
Montgomery, Howard, Prince George's, and statewide tiers each move on their own schedule — every January and July. A national payroll can't keep up.
TTOC codes and Box 12-TP qualified tips are mandatory for the first time in January 2027. Most payroll systems treat it as an edge case.
At launch we do one thing — the §45B FICA tip credit — and we do it end to end. Payroll, sales-tax filing, and GL arrive with the full platform.
ADP answers to shareholders. Square answers to Block. We answer to the restaurants we serve — everything we build starts with what a Maryland restaurant actually needs.
Illustrative figures from blue-crab-playbook.md — modeled conservatively, never promotional.
Walk through the 30-second setup a restaurant would follow — connect its POS and payroll, then watch its history get analyzed. The demo opens with a pre-built sample restaurant (3+ years of reconciling POS, payroll, and tip data) so you can click straight into the §45B credit. Nothing here is real and nothing is imported.
On later visits you'll go straight into the live demo.
Square, Clover, or Toast? Gusto, ADP, or something else? Tell us your systems and which reports you can export, and we'll confirm you're supported — or tell you the closest export to provide.
Five Maryland restaurants onboard October 1, 2026. Tell us about yours and we'll follow up as launch approaches.
Disclaimer
Blue Crab Guild is not a law firm, accounting firm, or tax-preparation firm unless separately stated. This product provides informational tools and estimates based on data supplied or connected by the user. Nothing here is tax, legal, accounting, payroll, or audit advice. Credit and savings figures are estimated workpapers based solely on imported and customer-confirmed data, subject to customer and independent tax-professional review. They are not filed with the IRS by Blue Crab Guild, and Blue Crab does not guarantee eligibility, a credit amount, tax savings, or a refund. Do not use any document for filing unless it has been reviewed and approved by your qualified tax professional. Nothing is filed without the user's authorization.