Congress recently passed a 10% tax on tanning related services to help fund the Healthcare Reform Bill. The new tax is supposed raise $2.7 billion dollars over the next 10-years.

Tanning salon owners were already against the tax and now claim they're being unfairly singled-out, saying they're the only one's actually forced to pay the tax.

Employees at Club Sun in Destin say they're having a hard time explaining why a 10% tan tax has been added to their customers' monthly bill.

Larry Andrews, Vice President of Sales for Club Sun is beyond livid.
"Why in the world was that even there? There's bigger hills to climb out there".

And bigger fees to pay. Last month Congress passed a 10% tax on tanning services, which the Indoor Tanning Association is still fighting. The additional revenue will go to help pay for the Healthcare Reform Bill.

Billy Roof, a Club Sun customer also disagrees with the tax.
'If it's tanning they're going to (tax), something I enjoy to do in my free time, what else are they going to get out of me? Are they going to tax my dirt bike? Are they going to say I can't play out in the yard with my dog without paying taxes? I mean it's just getting a little carried away.”

On top of the already highly criticized tax, it only applies to tanning salons. Any other place that offers tanning is not being taxed. Andrews thinks it has become an issue of liability.

"In a gym, in a spa, in a health club, in a an apartment complex where there's free tanning, the customer themselves is the one turning the dial. What if they turn the dial 20 minutes the first time and they get sunburned? That won't happen in an indoor salon, we are smart-tan certified, we do a skin type analysis on you, tanning is our business."

A similar bill proposing a 5% tax on cosmetic procedures failed last year because it was viewed as discriminatory towards women. Some say that may also be the case in the tanning tax.

"90% of our employees are women so we've had to lay some of our employees off, some other salons have too; that's college students working that don't have a part-time job anymore" Andrews says.

Salons are collecting donations to pay for the lobbyists to fight the tax on Capitol Hill.

A smart-tan poll stated 76% of tanning salon business owners believed the 10% tax was hurting sales opposed to 24% who felt the tax had no impact at all.