Cite as: 536 U. S. 238 (2002)
Souter, J., dissenting
B
As the majority acknowledges, the next problem is that the aggregate estimation necessarily requires the use of generalized assumptions for calculating such estimates, and the assumptions actually used tend to inflate liability. In the first place, while the IRS's assumption that many employees are underreporting is indisputably sound, the assumption that every patron is not only tipping, but tipping 14.49% in 1991 and 14.29% in 1992, is probably not. Those percentages are based on two further assumptions: that patrons who pay with credit cards tip at the same rate as patrons who pay in cash, and that all patrons use the tip line of the credit card slip for tips, rather than to obtain cash. But what is most significant is that the IRS's method of aggregate estimation ignores the wage band entirely, assuming that all tips are subject to FICA tax, although this is not true in law, and certainly not always the case in fact.
C
The tendency of the Government's aggregation method to overestimate liability might not count much against it if it were fair to expect employers to keep the reports that would carry their burden to refute any contested assessment based on an aggregate estimate. But it is not fair.
Obviously, the only way an employer can refute probable inflation by estimate is to keep track of every employee's tips, ante, at 248, and at first blush, there might seem nothing unusual about expecting employers to do this.3 The Code
3 Of course, even the IRS has not explained the precise manner in which the employer is expected to generate such records. Before the Court of Appeals, the IRS argued that the employer could require employees to pool all tips, and thereby keep track of them. See 242 F. 3d 844, 848, n. 6 (CA9 2001). The court properly rejected this contention as "alter[ing] the way a restaurant does business . . . . It would be akin to saying that a restaurant must charge a fixed service charge in lieu of tips." Ibid. Before this Court, the IRS instead argued that "every employer should
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