Some of you might not be aware that on Christmas eve a few of the good folks in Washington gathered around and came up with a last minute 10% tax on tanning services, the 10% tax on tanning services will replace a 5% proposed tax on elective cosmetic procedures.

In addition to posting the information below I have a post with 5 things you can do to stop the tan tax, for those of you that enjoy indoor tanning or your a tanning salon owner here are a few concerning facts about the 10% tan tax. TAKE ACTION BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!

Oppose the 10% Tax on Tanning Services

The ten-percent tax on tanning services included in the Senate-passed healthcare reform bill is a regressive tax that would unfairly hit working women and college students who comprise the majority of indoor tanning consumers. In Florida, there are approximately 635,000 customers who would be impacted by this tax.

Furthermore, the tax would hit an estimated 1,016 retail businesses as well as businesses in the manufacturing and distribution sectors in the state significantly harming these companies and jeopardizing the thousands of jobs they generate. Nationally, the indoor tanning industry is made of approximately 20,000 small businesses nationwide employing approximately 150,000 people.

Because tanning is something people do with disposable income, this industry has already been hit hard by the recession. If someone is concerned about their job, paying the mortgage or buying groceries and gasoline, that person is not likely to spend money on a tan.

The retail side of this industry is made up of one and two store operations, classic small businesses. The stores are typically owned and operated by women who have taken out a second mortgage on a home or invested their life savings and are pursuing the American dream.

Not only are the majority of these businesses owned and operated by women, as many as 75% of the employees and customers are women as well.

Although the CBO estimates that this tax will raise $2.7 billion over ten years or an average of 270,000,000 annually, this figure is vastly over estimated. Most industry insiders believe that figure may be double or even three times too high.

This is a punitive tax inserted at the request of the other medical trade associations whose members would have been detrimentally impacted by originally proposed 5% tax on elective cosmetic procedures – a high-margin business for medical providers who perform these expensive vanity procedures.

The tanning tax was added very late in the process with no input from the industry regarding its impact or opportunity for amendment.

We are not asking for reinstatement of the Botax. We only ask that the Congress not try to pay for healthcare reform with a tax that will have negligible impact on the trillion dollar cost of the proposal but will have a significant negative impact on a struggling industry.

Therefore, in Florida we would respectfully request that Senator Nelson request of Majority Leader Harry Reid and Chairman Max Baucus, that the tanning tax be eliminated in the final conference report. Please visit The ITA for information on who to contact in your state to oppose the 10% tax on tanning services.