The cost of getting a good tan just went up. A new federal tax went into affect at the beginning of July.
People getting that golden glow indoors*are now paying a 10 percent federal tax for the service. It's part of the new health care reform bill and aimed at getting people to slow down with tanning.
Courtney Tickal says she enjoys relaxing in the beds, but she's concerned about what a 10 percent tax hike will do to her budget.
"Tanning is already really expensive and so 10 percent is not going to help at all. I'll probably not go tanning as much now," said Tickal.
Because tanning isn't a necessity for Tickal, she says she'll cut back.
"Tanning was kind of like a relaxation thing too and then now it's going to be way too expensive," said Tickal.
Tanning salon owner John Fell says more time is needed before his industry can really tell how the new tax is going to impact them.
"After the 1st we probably had four or five phone calls of people asking why their membership went up a little bit, and we explained the new tax took affect," said Fell.
He says most of his customers don't have much of an issue with the new tax.
"It was like the light bulb came on, ‘Oh yeah I read about that,’ or ‘I knew about that,’ so not really too much impact in that way," said Fell.
And he thinks people will still come in to get that back from the beach look.
"I think people that tan, it won't prevent them from it but everyone's on a budget and it certainly may affect how much they tan," said Fell.
Tickal agrees.
"Oh there's definitely going to be people that still tan, definitely now they're going to have to spend more money and it's not going to help people who want to tan at all," said Tickal.
UV treatments from dermatologists and health clubs are exempt from the federal tax.
One reason for the new tan tax was to curb the potentially dangerous habit, but tickle's opinion that strategy doesn't really work for cigarettes and probably isn't going work for tanning.
With the new federal tan tax in place those in Iowa and Minnesota now pay a total tax of about 17 percent.
