Darque Tan Locations

Try to keep that golden glow through the new year? It could cost you a bit more.

A last minute change in the Bill of federal healthcare rid of a tax of 5 percent proposed on cosmetic medical procedures and to replace it with a 10 percent tax on tanning services.

Goodbye Botox tax. Tax Tan Hello.

Dallas is a big market for cosmetic surgery and fake tanning, so that the region would have taken a hit anyway. Texas is home to two of the nation's largest chain of tanning - Farmers Branch-based Palm Beach Tan, with over 250 locations, and Houston-based Darque Tan, with over 100 locations.

John Overstreet, executive director of Tanning Association, said he was making frantic telephone calls from tanning salon owners throughout the week.

"They are afraid of death," he said. "They are already suffering through this recession."

The International Smart Tan Network, a Jackson, Mississippi-based trade association for Education in the tanning salon industry, estimates the tax could result in 1,000 companies to stop tanning and up to 9,000 job cuts 2010. Nationally, there are more than 20,000 tanning salons and has no gyms, hair salons and other places that also offer tanning services.

Some Dallas-area independent tanning salon owners said they will not be able to absorb the tax of 10 percent and will either have to pass the cost on to customers, staff cut or increase their own hours. One of them is Randy Ranew, owner of 12 years Inwood Tan in Dallas. He said the tax would amount to about $ 30,000 per year based on its annual turnover.

"Times are really tough right now," said Ranew. "I can not absorb this. I do not know how it will work out, but I see it costs us business and eliminate a number of small businesses. "

The owners' dilemma

The impact on consumers is difficult to determine because salon owners can handle the tax differently. If an owner has decided to pass along the full charges for the client, and a tanning $ 20 increase to $ 22.

Tiffany Kirkland, owner of 18-month-old Golden Beach Tan in Allen with her husband, Scott, expects to lose customers if it must increase prices. Scott Kirkland proposed tax would cost them $ 13,000 to $ 15,000 next year.

The tax Tan arisen in health care bills last weekend, after the powerful medical lobby - including the American Academy of Dermatology Association, American Medical Association, American Society of Plastic Surgeons and Botox-Allergan maker - persuaded Congress to abolish a tax on cosmetic medical procedures and replace it with a surcharge of 10 percent on tanning services.

"We have been a sacrifice for another group more politically powerful," said Overstreet. "It talks about what's wrong with Washington. You're taking it away from doctors rich and wealthy clients and to tax Employment of people. "

Dallas plastic surgeon Dr. Steven White said his association - the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery - lobbied Congress heavily against a tax on cosmetic surgery.

"Since 90 percent of cosmetic surgery patients are women, it would be a very discriminatory taxation," said Aidan White, who opposed the tax on cosmetic surgery.

The indoor tanning industry consists of over 20,000 small businesses with at least 75 percent owned by women, according to the Association Tan. Ranew salon owner said 90 percent of its clients are women.

One concern of these so-called vanity tax there is no guarantee of demand for cosmetic surgery or a tan, will remain strong enough to generate the projected tax revenues. In 2004, New Jersey became the first state to tax and only cosmetic medical procedures, but.