Area tanning salons oppose 10 percent tax that takes effect July 1

Customers and owners of tanning salons are hot over a new tax that goes into effect July 1.

As part of President Barack Obama's health care legislation that was signed into law, salons must charge an extra 10 percent for tanning bed use, which could add 50 cents to a few dollars to the bill for a tanning session. Congressional tax writers project the tax will raise about $2.7 billion to help expand health care coverage to uninsured Americans over the next decade.

Angela DeProw, owner of Under the Sun in Cape Girardeau, believes the tax on her industry couldn't come at a worse time, when the nation's estimated 18,000 tanning salons are falling on hard times.

"The indoor tanning industry as well as other industries have been negatively affected by the economy," DeProw said. "The added 10 percent tax on indoor tanning is just another blow to small business and will negatively affect the consumers' buying decisions."

DeProw said she believes the tanning industry was unfairly targeted because it lacks the lobbying power of other sectors, like the pharmaceutical industry.

Christie Oestreich applies tanning lotion before getting in a tanning bed Thursday at Under the Sun in Cape Girardeau.

The tanning tax wasn't included in early versions of the health care bill. The tanning tax was added after dermatologists persuaded senators to substitute it for a proposed tax on cosmetic surgery.

Thus, the "Botax" was eliminated and the tanning tax took its place.

"The deal traded an affordable tax on purely elective cosmetic procedures for the wealthiest Americans for an onerous tax that will hurt middle-class Americans, will force women-owned businesses to close and will cost the country thousands of jobs," DeProw said.

Tina Burger, owner of Sun-Sations in Jackson, hopes businesses like the mom-and-pop salons don't shut their doors because of the tax. A January poll by Sun Tan International, an industry group made up of salon owners, found that 77 percent of tanning business owners think they will have to lay off employees or even close once the 10 percent tax is enacted. Ten percent of those salon owners said the increase wouldn't affect their business.

"Being a small-business owner, you're already trying to turn a profit during hard economic times," Burger said. "And then when you hit a hurdle like this, it doesn't help."

While he didn't have an opinion about the tanning tax itself, Cape Girardeau dermatologist Dr. Hal Brown said that even occasional use of artificial tanning can increase one's chances of developing skin cancer.

"No one enthusiastically recommends people go to artificial sources of tanning," Brown said. "The more people use it, the greater likelihood they have of getting skin cancer."

Even with warnings by Brown and others in the industry or the impending tanning tax increase, Lana Mae Sikes doesn't plan on discontinuing her nearly daily visit to Under the Sun. But she may consider purchasing a tanning bed one day.

"I'm sure other people who enjoy to tan will do the same thing," Sikes said. "So this tax may be helping to pay for health benefits for people that have no health insurance, but in the long run what is this going to do to our economy if millions of people quit tanning?"

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

bblackwell@semissourian.com

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2031 Cape Lacroix Road, Cape Girardeau, MO

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