Let’s just face it: tanning is a much maligned treatment. Though it provides ample levels of Vitamin D, tanning has a reputation for being dangerous for our skin. More specifically, society views UV tanning beds as a major cause of melanoma—even though the link isn’t that strong.
Throughout the 2010s, one of the ways politicians “fought back” against the tanning industry was to introduce taxes. However, it seems like tanning taxes might soon become a thing of the past. Kentucky’s Senator Rand Paul (R) introduced the Tan Tax Repeal Act in Congress in a bid to repeal the 10 percent tax on indoor tanning services.
The bill was co-sponsored by other Republicans, including Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Ted Budd (R-NC). The 10 percent tax was originally “snuck” into the Affordable Care Act as a replacement for the pending “Botox Tax” that was almost included in the bill.
According to the American Suntanning Association, the “Tan Tax” cost Americans over 110,000 jobs. Approximately 11,000 tanning salons were closed after the tax pushed services beyond affordability for mainstream Americans.
It’s worth noting that this is not the first time politicians have tried to repeal this particular tax. President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” also had an attempt at repealing the excise tax as well, though that portion of the bill did not make it pasts its initial draft.
If nothing else, the multiple attempts suggest that people are really interested in pulling back on the tax.
Should the tax repeal go into effect, tanning salons and tanning bed manufacturers would get a much-welcomed break from high taxes. Could this translate into more jobs in the future? It may be hard to tell, but it still suggests a sunny outlook on tanning’s future.
