Congress moves to cut tanning tax, shifting burden to all taxpayers
S. 1865 — Tanning Tax Repeal Act of 2025 · Filed by Rand Paul (R-KY) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced May 22, 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 codified in Internal Revenue Code Chapter 49, would be struck entirely, eliminating a revenue source and reducing the cost of tanning services to consumers.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is the repeal of an excise tax on a specific commercial service. It is a straightforward tax relief measure benefiting tanning salons and their customers, not a broader public-policy reform.
What the text implies
- Repealing the tax eliminates approximately $100–150 million in annual federal revenue (based on historical collections), increasing the deficit unless offset elsewhere.
- The tax was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act (2010) as a revenue offset for healthcare expansion; its repeal narrows the ACA's funding base without legislative replacement.
- Tanning services carry documented public-health costs (skin cancer, melanoma risk); the tax functioned as a modest Pigouvian signal discouraging use. Repeal removes that price signal.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill eliminates a dedicated revenue source without offsetting cuts or new revenue, increasing the federal deficit and shifting the tax burden to other taxpayers. The primary beneficiaries are tanning salons and frequent users of tanning services—a narrow commercial interest—not the general public.
Who stands to gain
- indoor tanning salons and chains
- frequent tanning service users
Named in the bill
Internal Revenue Code of 1986, Chapter 49 (excise tax on indoor tanning), Subtitle D (excise taxes)
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 4 Republicans.
- May 22, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- May 22, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $20,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 2 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 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Rand Paul, the sponsor, reported $94,645 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Suntanning Association — $20,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 16, 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 25, 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 Dec 2025. 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 Jan 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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