Split a bill by item, with tax and tip
Some meals are not fair to split evenly. One person had the steak, another had a salad, and three of you shared a platter. Enter each item, tick who shared it, and add the VAT and the tip or service charge. This page shows what each person owes, and the shares add up to the bill exactly.
Result
| Person | Items | Tax 5% | Tip 10% | Owes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person 1 | 9.25 | 0.51 | 0.93 | 10.69 |
| Person 2 | 9.95 | 0.55 | 1.00 | 11.50 |
| Person 3 | 7.55 | 0.41 | 0.75 | 8.71 |
| Person 4 | 5.25 | 0.29 | 0.52 | 6.06 |
| Bill | 32.00 | 1.76 | 3.20 | 36.96 |
When to split evenly and when to split by item
Splitting evenly is fast and friendly. If everyone ordered about the same, divide the total and move on. Use the bill split calculator for that. A few cents of difference is not worth a long talk at the table.
Split by item when the orders are clearly different. Common cases are a guest who only had a drink, a person who does not drink when others do, or one expensive main among several light ones. Splitting by item also helps when people are paying from a work budget and need their own share on record. The rule of thumb is simple: if one person would pay much more than they ate under an even split, go item by item.
Shared plates and drinks
Shared starters, platters and jugs of juice are where most bill arguments start. The fair method is to split each shared item only between the people who had some. Tick those people on the item above, and the page divides that item equally between them. A person who did not touch the platter pays nothing for it. If a dish was shared but one person ate most of it, you can enter it twice: one line for their extra portion and one line for the shared part.
Tax and service: in proportion or equal?
Service is a percentage of the food, and VAT is a percentage of the food plus the service. So the natural split is in proportion: a person whose items cost twice as much pays twice as much tax and twice as much tip. That is the default on this page. Some groups prefer to split the tip equally, because the service was the same for everyone. Both are reasonable. Pick one before the bill arrives and use it every time.
Here is how the common charges on a bill differ:
| Charge | What it is | Usual way to split |
|---|---|---|
| VAT or sales tax | A government tax on the sale, set by law. Oman charges 5% VAT. | In proportion to what each person ordered |
| Service charge | A fixed percentage the restaurant adds to the bill itself | In proportion, or equally if the group agrees |
| Tip | An optional amount the group chooses to leave for the staff | In proportion or equally, as the group prefers |
Customs for tips and service charges differ from place to place, and from one restaurant to the next. Read the bill first. If a service charge is already on it, many people do not add a separate tip. This page adds the service or tip on the food subtotal, then charges VAT on the food plus the service, which is how most restaurant bills in Oman show it. If you leave a separate cash tip that carries no VAT, set the service field to 0 and split the tip on its own.
How rounding works
A bill of 10.00 between three people does not divide into whole cents. A careless calculator shows 3.33 three times and loses a cent. This page works in whole cents and uses a largest remainder rule: everyone gets their exact share rounded down, and the cents that are left go to the people closest to the next cent. If two people are equally close, the earlier person in the list gets it. The result is that each column in the table always adds up to the bill, to the cent.
A worked example
Two friends eat out. Sara has a main for 8.50. Omar has a main for 4.50. They share a starter for 3.00. Each person pays half of the starter, so Sara's items come to 10.00 and Omar's come to 6.00. The food subtotal is 16.00. A 10% service charge is 1.60. VAT at 5% is charged on the food plus the service, 17.60, so it is 0.88.
- In proportion: Sara ordered 10 of the 16, so she pays 1.00 service and 0.55 VAT, 11.55 in all. Omar pays 0.60 service and 0.33 VAT, 6.93 in all.
- Equally: each pays 0.80 service and 0.44 VAT. Sara pays 11.24 and Omar pays 7.24.
- Check: both ways add up to 18.48. That is 16.00 of food, plus 1.60 service, plus 0.88 VAT (5% of 17.60).
Bill etiquette that saves friendships
Agree the method at the start of the meal, not when the bill comes. Let the person who paid share a photo of the receipt so everyone can check the items. Pay them back the same day if you can. And if the group eats out often, stop doing sums at the table at all.
For more than one meal
A single dinner is a calculation. A trip, a flat or a regular group dinner is a running record: different people pay at different times, sometimes in different currencies. Splitty keeps that record for the group, holds the receipts with the expenses, and works out a short list of payments to settle everyone. It has a free plan. To see how settling works, read how to settle group expenses, or browse the other free tools.