Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Tanning salon owners: Please drop the skin tax

tanning

Steve Marcus

Alicia Jaeger lies in a filter glass tanning bed Saturday at a BodyHeat tanning salon in Henderson. The U.S. Senate’s health care reform bill includes a 10 percent tanning tax.

Click to enlarge photo

In response to the tanning tax, Palm Beach Tan is providing customers with contact information for Sen. Harry Reid.

Even though it is one of the nation’s sunniest places, the Las Vegas Valley is home to at least 86 tanning salons, according to the most recent phone book.

Celebrities and tourists alike go for quick brownings before strutting their stuff in Strip nightclubs, and the valley’s many strippers frequent the salons, as do casino cocktail waitresses who feel like being tan makes them more attractive, which in turn helps them earn more tips.

But businesses that cater to the valley’s tanning desires, like their colleagues across the nation, are worried they will get burned by the 10 percent tax on indoor tanning included in the Senate’s health care bill.

A majority of senators figured the tax was a good fit for the bill because experts say ultraviolet radiation from indoor tanning poses a high risk of skin cancer. The federal government estimated the tax would bring in $2.7 billion over the next 10 years to help cover the cost of health care reform.

The tax wasn’t included in the House version of the health care reform bill, so as Congress works to reconcile differences in the two bills, tanning salon owners such as Kathy Garlan of Las Vegas have been clinging to hope that “the tanning tax” gets dropped.

But after Republicans won a Massachusetts Senate seat on Tuesday, dropping the tax might be more unlikely because the Democrats may now try to rush the bill to passage.

Among the opponents of the Senate bill is Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, who represents Southern Nevada. She has complained about the detrimental effects that parts of the bill will have on small businesses.

Garlan and other tanning salon owners say the tax aimed at them will be another blow to an industry of small businesses that have had a hard time weathering the recession because they rely on discretionary spending.

Garlan owns 11 BodyHeat Tanning locations in the valley and said she has heard from customers who say they won’t be able to pay for tanning as often because of the higher expense.

“They said it will make a big difference for them and now they don’t think they can afford it,” Garlan says. “As a business owner, it hurts to hear that. Our customers are already hurting in this economy. A lot of them are casino workers who have been hurt because tourism is so far down and now they are being asked to pay 10 percent more for the same service.”

Tanning sessions can range from $10 to $30, so the tax would add $1 to $3 to the bill. That can add up for people who go to tanning salons on a regular basis.

For casino workers, a tan is practically part of the uniform, Garlan said. The majority of most casino workers’ pay comes from tips. Tans are considered a relatively easy way to look more attractive, and customers tend to give better tips to attractive people.

The Indoor Tanning Association argues the tax also disproportionately hurts small businesses and women. The association has 1,000 paying members, all of whom it has encouraged to lobby lawmakers.

Salons are spreading word of the impending tax to customers. At the six valley locations of Palm Beach Tan, for example, employees are giving customers cards bearing the phone number of Harry Reid’s office. Jon Summers, Reid’s spokesman, said the office has received at least a few calls from people opposing the tan tax.

John Overstreet, president of the Indoor Tanning Association, says his group argues the tax hits women more than it hits men because about 75 percent of the nation’s tanning salons are owned by women, many of their employees are women and so are many of the customers.

Concerns about the severity of the tax’s impact are legitimate because it comes at a time when so many people are struggling to pay rent and make car payments, he adds. In a recession, spending on something optional like a tan is one of the first areas that people cut.

“This is another blow to that,” Overstreet says. “These businesses are already going through phasing in lower prices and being creative to keep revenue.”

He also says the federal government has overestimated how much money the tax will bring in. “I wish it was true,” Overstreet says. “There is no one in the industry who thinks that” the tax revenue will be $2.7 billion over the next 10 years. “It may be half that much.”

Garlan says she doesn’t have a solution to funding the health care reform legislation but points out that as a small business, her company provides health care benefits to employees. If any tax affects the bottom line, that could cut her workforce and benefits for workers, she said.

So Garlan, like the rest of the indoor tanning industry, is hoping that in the coming days Congress finds “a different way.”

Proponents of the tax say that although job losses would be regrettable, they pale in comparison to the loss of life from cancer. And, they ask, if it hurts businesses that profit from a practice that increases the risk of cancer, is that such a bad thing?

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