New tax hits tanning salons

Patrons of area tanning salons are paying more for their tans as of July 1.

The new health care bill passed by Congress placed a 10 percent tax on individuals receiving indoor tanning services to help fund the $940 billion health care overhaul.

The "tanning tax" is projected to generate $2.7 billion during the next 10 years from the 30 million Americans who use indoor tanning beds at 19,000 small businesses offering these services.

Jodi Bird, an employee of Sunset Tan in Princeton, said the salon raised prices 10 percent on July 1 to cover the 10 percent "luxury tax," which amounts to about 60 cents per session.

"Many people complained about it," said Bird. "They are not going to stop tanning because of it. They are still going to pay it."

It is crazy that the government is doing this, she added.

The tax was added because of the potential of people getting skin cancer or melanoma from overexposure to the ultraviolet rays coming from tanning beds.

The Indoor Tanning Association, which represents tanning facilities and suppliers of tanning equipment, had launched a campaign against the passage of the tanning tax.

“I hardly think this is the appropriate time to raise taxes on our nation’s smallest businesses, the very people who can least afford new and complicated taxes,” says Dan Humiston, president of the Indoor Tanning Association. “This directly violates the promise President Obama made not to raise taxes on the middle class. A tax like this could be devastating to thousands of mom and pop tanning businesses across the country.”

The 10-percent tax on tanning services included in the recently passed healthcare legislation is a regressive tax that would unfairly hit working women and college students who comprise the majority of indoor tanning consumers, the ITA said in a press release.

Furthermore, the tax would hit an estimated 18,000 small businesses nationwide including retail, manufacturing and distribution businesses significantly harming these companies and jeopardizing the thousands of jobs they generate, the release stated.

Staci Schuck of Princeton, a tanning enthusiast, said she had signed a petition opposing the implementation of the tanning tax when she worked in Iowa.