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
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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.
- Tanning salons are a small, geographically concentrated industry; repeal may disproportionately benefit operators in states with higher tanning prevalence (e.g., northern states with seasonal demand).
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens lose federal revenue ($60–80M annually) with no offsetting public benefit or service expansion. The primary beneficiaries are tanning salons (a narrow commercial interest) and frequent tanning customers (a small demographic). The revenue loss must be made up through other taxes, spending cuts, or borrowing, spreading the cost across all taxpayers.
Who stands to gain
- indoor tanning salons and chains
- frequent tanning customers (reduced out-of-pocket cost)
Named in the bill
Internal Revenue Code of 1986, Subtitle D, Chapter 49, House Committee on Ways and Means
Where it stands
26 cosponsors: 26 Republicans.
- Mar 6, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 6, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,050,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 14 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Carol Miller, the sponsor, reported $1,295,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Academy of Dermatology Association — $1,030,000 on 2 filings
- American Suntanning Association — $20,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (448 characters) on Jul 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress moves to repeal tanning tax, cutting federal revenue for salon industry” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr1940 Report an error
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