A new national 10% tax on indoor tanning is now in place — and one Iowa owner of tanning salon says it doesn’t look like it’s going to have a big overall impact on his business. Pat Chedester owns “Tan World” of Sioux City and Sergeant Bluff, and says he’s never happy to see taxes increase for his customers.
“Working middle-class women are the majority of our clientele, so to see additional taxes levied on them is not something I would wish on that group of people, especially if you consider where that tax started,” Chedester says. He says it actually started as a part of the health care bill and was a tax on cosmetic surgery like botox, but lobbyist got involved and spent a lot of money, “and magically it moved off of botox and onto tanning.”
Chedester says tanning operators didn’t have enough pull to fight the tax. He says there’s not a big enough conglomeration of the tanning operators to fight the issue compared to the big pharmaceutical companies. Chedester says the additional cost hasn’t seemed to keep people from getting their fake bake.
“We’re not seeing it impact business, people are not happy about it, we’ve had a few people make comments, but it’s not a big rush to make any changes in behavior,” Chedester says. Chedester says the average tanner will pay and extra two dollars a month for the tax.
By Josie Cooper, KSCJ, Sioux City
