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March 28, 2024

Tax on tanning booths proposed to help pay for health care

10 percent tax would raise $2.7 billion over 10 years

Updated Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009 | 1:48 p.m.

WASHINGTON — Move over Botox tax.

The latest proposal to help pay for health care reform will hit tanning salons – or, more accurately, those who bronze themselves indoors rather than under the sun.

In the final version of the Senate health care bill released on Saturday, patrons of tanning salons will be hit with a 10 percent tax on services, raising $2.7 billion over 10 years to help pay for health care reform.

The tanning tax replaces a proposed 5 percent tax on plastic surgery providers, dubbed the BoTax, which was eliminated after opposition from the plastic surgery industry, which had been fighting the measure.

The nip-and-tuck tax would be only on elective, not reconstructive, plastic surgeries, and would raise $5.8 billion over a decade.

CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to reflect that the plastic surgery providers tax has been eliminated from the bill. | (December 19, 2009)

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