A teen tanning ban has been upheld in Germany after tanning salon owners complained. There was an appeal by a 17 year old girl who claimed that the ban infringed on her rights, but the court denied the appeal and upheld the ban on the grounds of public safety. The bans seem to be holding up in other parts of the world. Especially Europe and Canada.
Legislation is being introduced in Utah for a teen ban as well. The editorial in the link is definitely against the measure, stating that it creates the problem of government getting into people’s lives. We’ll see how that legislation fares.
Also, for an alternate look at the tan tax, here’s an article that talks about how it is faring over the past year. According to the article, about a quarter of salon owners experienced a loss in business, while the rest of them didn’t seem to have too serious of problems. Many business absorbed the costs themselves, or shared the costs with the customer, while the rest passed the costs on to the customer. Many customers were against the tax, but in the end didn’t mind paying it to tan. Of course, the government hasn’t collected nearly as much revenue as originally projected, calling into question the effectiveness of the tax.
We came across a blog post that suggested a possible way around the tan tax; we thought we’d pass it on.
The post hinted at a possible loophole as described by the IRS itself. The loophole was this: if tanning services are paid for by reward points (this term is vague, but probably means any sort of reward point system a business can establish) then the services do not have to be taxed. A more technical description can be found here if you want to investigate further.
It wouldn’t hurt to talk to a tax expert for clarification, and to read over the technical discussion linked above.
As I write this post, there are various tanning industry groups all over the country campaigning to repeal the tan tax.
Reasons cited for abolishing the tan tax include:
- The tax unfairly targets the tanning industry, playing favoritism to the big money dermatological and cosmetic interests.
- The terms of the tax are confusing and vague. Tanning business owners aren’t sure how to collect the tax.
- The tax won’t bring in nearly as much as originally projected (2.7 billion in 10 years), whereas the original planned tax on cosmetic surgeries was expected to bring in much more.
- The tax will hurt many small businesses.
Tanning industry groups around the country are partaking in “grassroots” campaigns in order to fight the tax. What is a grassroots campaign? A grassroots campaign is a campaign in which members from local communities organize in order to advocate a certain cause.
Grassroots campaigns (or at least the use of the term “grassroots”) have regained popularity recently (the grassroots campaign started to become mentioned in the early 1900’s) due to the democratic ideals they embody. Basically, instead of a movement being orchestrated by a central power, a grassroots movement is orchestrated by the community. The idea is for community members to have more of a say in legislation.
More and more people are realizing that if they band together in their communities and organize effectively, they can get their opinions heard and possibly see more effective legislative action than just simply sitting around, waiting for their representatives to do the work for them. This is why grassroots campaigns are getting popular again.
With the help of organizations like the ITA, tanning salon business owners in states such as Nebraska, New York, Michigan, and New Hampshire are organizing themselves into rallies to get their opinions on the tan tax heard. They are writing to their representatives and senators advocating the abolition of the tan tax. The word is these representatives and senators are listening!
If you are feeling the hurt of the tan tax on your business and want to do something about it, consider organizing with local business owners in your area. Contact the ITA. People like you are rising up all over the country and expressing their opinions. They’re getting their voices heard.
So the tan tax is supposed to go into effect Thursday, July 1. With salon owners and other business interests in the tanning industry, this tanning tax is a big deal.
Well, for starters the tax is 10%!
Consumers are really going to be cutting down on luxury items in this economic climate. Having increased tanning costs is not going to help things for small business owners in the industry. There will be consumers still willing to pay for their tanning…and there will be consumers who won’t. What this means is business is going to be hurt for most indoor tanning salon owners.
Now we come to the point in the story where we get down on our knees, spread out our arms, and shout to the sky, “Why?!” Read more…
