Wrong suggested tips

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Though tips are supposedly optional in the United States, if you do leave a tip, it should be based on the subtotal amount, not the total. You should not tip on tax. Often when the receipt shows suggested tip amounts, they are based on the total and not the subtotal. Enough times people will just take one of those suggested tips and fill it in to the tip line on the receipt. If you do that and don’t do the math first, you’ll often end up leaving a tip on the total, which of course includes tax. I was at a restaurant today and that is exactly what happened. I saw the suggested tip amounts on the bill and I was ready to put one of them in to the tip line of the receipt. After taking one of those percentages and doing the math, it turned out the suggested tip was calculated from the total and not the subtotal. Knowing this, I redid the math for the subtotal and left the correct amount. I don’t understand why receipts automatically show suggested tips for the total when you’re not supposed to leave a tip on the tax part.