Personally, the tax isn’t worth the skin cancer.
From the Tax Prof:
A lawyer asks whether the new 10% tanning tax included in the health care bill unconstitutionally discriminates against whites:
I [have] a question about the intersection of taxation and civil rights law. It strikes me that the health care bill which requires that indoor tanning salons will charge customers a 10% tax beginning in July will necessarily only impact tanning salon customers. I have never been to a tanning salon, but since their purpose is to turn light skin darker, I can only assume that the overwhelming majority, if not totality, of customers are white. Does Adarand apply to taxation decision as it does to spending decisions like the Section 8(a) program, but what about taxing decisions?
March 25, 2010 at 12:30 pm
As someone with Anglo/Irish fair skin (as well as blue eyes which puts me in the “risk category” for further problems with skin cancer) and who has already had a pre-cancerous mole removed from my chest (and who knows what’s yet in store)…I have NO sympathy with this.
If you want to risk skin cancer “to look reaaally good”, go ahead.
I’m covering myself big-time.
I’m not ready to die, quite yet.
March 25, 2010 at 12:58 pm
I don’t think that a 10% tax is going to discourage fools. Pictures of skin cancers never do to the trick either. It isn’t until they see the defect size and what the repair will be that forces reality on them. Unfortunately, it is always too late.
March 25, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Yep.
I would not have listened, either.
Dumb me; I roasted on the Gulf Coast as a teenager…I’ve paid the price.
Age will do it.
Bake yourselves, silly, idiots…the day of reckoning will come, if not soon, later.
March 26, 2010 at 6:23 am
It’s coming sooner now NP. Skin cancers in particular are surfacing at a quicker rate.
March 25, 2010 at 2:12 pm
The tanning tax is the Billy Beer of the Obama administration…
It is so laughable, yet unless you honestly invested the time to notice it sufficiently, you wouldn’t really understand how ridiculous it is…
At which point of course, one simply becomes overwhelmed with despair over the waste of time devoted to it in the first place…
March 25, 2010 at 2:55 pm
OMG, I forgot about Billy Beer. ROFL
March 25, 2010 at 6:43 pm
OMG don’t remind them!
Next there will be a
“Billy Beer Tax!”
March 25, 2010 at 7:35 pm
Accckkkk!
March 25, 2010 at 3:31 pm
I don’t do tanning beds. The thing is, I tan whether I put on sunblock or not. I guess I’m the opposite of NP…Italians seem to tan very easily. But we are also susceptible to skin cancer and I’m always in a panic if I see anything that looks suspicious.
Personally, I don’t think any young person who uses tanning beds will be stopped because of a 10% tax. They think they are invincible. I think this administration is counting on that so they can make more money. I mean, really, 10% of the cost would come to about $5 for a tanning package, right? That’s nothing to a person who would go to a tanning salon, isn’t it?
March 25, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Tanning, cell phones, bright shiny objects dangerous or not will never be given up by children.
March 25, 2010 at 6:44 pm
Yeah, McNorman!
Just ask Obama!
Those trinkets sure worked for him when he was buying….
March 25, 2010 at 7:35 pm
lol
March 25, 2010 at 6:32 pm
I grew up in the desert sun. Slow growing skin cancer or melanoma comes 20-30 years down the road. I am of fair complexion and I can tell you that those little freckles are now ugly spots. I can’t imagine doing this for vanity.
March 25, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Too much skin cancer in my family- northern European heritage-
they are going to tax everything they can sneak through.
I have no idea how much a tanning package costs? But the tax on top of whatever the owner has to pay to cover employee health insurance? Small business gets screwed again.
March 25, 2010 at 6:35 pm
I don’t care if they want to simmer in a hot tub until they are raw. I don’t want to pay for it. We all will when those odd little moles turn into other things.
March 25, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Apparently it is getting some attention- tanning tax is the second highest trending item on yahoo right now.
Deflection at its finest! If that was the worst thing in that bill I would be ecstatic.
Apparently people do not care about his little “reserve Corps” or mandates, death panels and the IRS having access to your bank account- but a whole lot of people are sure searching the web to see about this tanning tax
{no smoking, no smoking,no smoking……)
March 25, 2010 at 6:41 pm
I’m glad you are hanging on to some sanity. The idiots will understand when their paycheck become nothing after struggling to pay off major loans. I don’t know what is wrong with the KoolAid drinkers except that they lack maturity to understand why wise people are telling them otherwise.
March 25, 2010 at 7:39 pm
I am also very fair skinned and would never use a tanning bed even if I could tan (I just burn to a red and black crisp).
jmo the issue of racism is a little silly:
these pos are putting a tax on everything. They are determined to get whatever dollar amount they entitled themselves (for now) and will stop at nothing to get it. These taxes will surely not stop with tanning, beer, cigarettes, etc.
When they become accustomed to the higher dollar amounts from us for these items, they will tax us more for bread, for our pets, for our water…
It is the act of increasing taxation during a depression that should command our attention, not what the tax is placed upon.
March 25, 2010 at 8:16 pm
True, but will they tax bleach creams? I don’t think so.
March 25, 2010 at 8:27 pm
they will if they fall under a blanket definition of cosmetics.
these pos are gunning for women in particular.
March 26, 2010 at 6:22 am
Whatever happened to equal? I don’t believe that it ever was equal.
March 27, 2010 at 1:00 am
[...] Tanning Tax Is Racist « Mcnorman's Weblog [...]
March 30, 2010 at 5:56 pm
Ok…try this.
Perhaps the purpose of the tax is to cover the increased (healthcare)cost associated with increased use (tanning beds) which results in increase incidents of skin cancer.
If we consumers (people who use)of tanning beds know that by using a tanning bed we increase our chances of getting skin cancer…but we still use tanning beds…than that technically is stupid.
Perhaps we can just look at as a tax on stupidity.
March 30, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Hi Chris. That is the logic that is this is being sold on. This tax is minutia considering what the interest will be on the debt. So, no it won’t make a dent on skin cancer. Even the teensy weensy little biopsy will not be paid for with this tax. Have tax increases ever stopped bad behavior? Why not just get rid of the idea that this tanning business makes you look good? It is silly. Tans go away. Believe me, I spent many a day in the sun. The problem is that the tumors don’t show up for twenty years.
March 31, 2010 at 12:10 am
exactly what you said “you spent many a day in the sun” Not all skin cancer is a result of tanning bed use. There are thousands, and thousands of people with skin cancer that never used a tanning bed. How is this tax fair – placing the cost of healthcare for skin cancer on people who use tanning beds. It’s forced behavior by taxation. Tanning beds are now safer than tanning on the beach. Are they going to tax that?
March 31, 2010 at 6:39 am
Tanning beds are NOT safer than the sun Cyn. Sorry, I deal with skin cancer all day long. Many are tanning bed addicts. I believe that you should do whatever you believe is your choice, but I don’t want to pay for it. Especially, this ludicrous minimal tax on what normally becomes quite a large medical bill over time. It’s not just one incident, there is always the yearly monitoring. Let’s not forget that once you start a history of skin cancer, many insurance companies will raise your premiums. Damaged goods. Make no mistake, the government will begin to use the insurance companies as utilities but they will also set regulation for these behaviors. I think it is a racist tax. Target population: pigment challenged people. It’s a racist tax.
March 31, 2010 at 12:02 am
as usual people are totally overlooking what the tax is because they don’t care if someone gets taxed for doing something they don’t do. Yes skin cancer is a problem. But to tax people using tanning beds is totally unfair. Are you going to have people going around collecting a tax from people sunbathing on the beach, cooking out in their back yards, doing yard work, farmers working in the fields. And yes this tax is not fair in the fact that blacks, hispanics and people of other origins with darker skin do not use tanning beds. I personally don’t use tanning beds but I think it is unfair to tax the people that do. What will be taxed next. Maybe a tax on people who drive between the hours of 7 – 8 am because of pollution, or to cut down on traffic, or accidents. There are too many unfair taxes already and this one is just idiotic.
March 31, 2010 at 6:33 am
Cyn, all of this stupidity is going to come down to what Europe has in order to pay for this monster of a health care bill…an added value tax. If they could figure out how to screw us on the air we breathe, you be it would have been in the bill.