Congress moves to repeal tanning tax, cutting federal revenue for salon industry
H.R. 1940 — Tanning Tax Repeal Act of 2025 · Filed by Carol Miller (R-WV) · 26 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 6, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill repeals the 10% federal excise tax on indoor tanning services, effective immediately upon enactment. The tax, currently embedded in the Internal Revenue Code, generates roughly $60–80 million annually in federal revenue. Repeal would benefit tanning salons and their customers by eliminating the tax burden; it would cost the federal government that revenue.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is the repeal of a specific excise tax. It is a straightforward, narrowly targeted tax relief measure benefiting a single commercial sector.
What the text implies
- Repeal eliminates a revenue stream that was partly justified as a health-policy measure (discouraging indoor tanning, which carries skin-cancer risk). Removal signals a shift away from using tax policy for public-health nudges.
- The $60–80M annual revenue loss is not offset by spending cuts or other revenue measures in this bill, implying it will increase the federal deficit or require compensatory tax increases elsewhere.
The full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
indoor tanning salons and chains; frequent tanning customers (reduced out-of-pocket cost)