The Internal Revenue Service formally published the final and temporary tan tax regulations on June 15, 2010. The IRS issued these regulations as “temporary” to provide guidance to users and providers of indoor tanning services. The text of the temporary regulations also serves as the text of the “proposed” regulations.

Before these regulations are final, the IRS is required to receive and respond to public comment. The comments are due by September 13. The ITA will be submitting comments on behalf of the industry. In addition, the association’s tax counsel and board of directors believe it is important for businesses affected by the regulations to weigh in with the IRS.

To facilitate this process and ensure the industry has a cohesive response, the ITA has offered to collect and package any comments from the industry and submit them to the IRS on the industry’s behalf. Their goal is to send all comments to the IRS by September 6. Accordingly, the ITA needs your comments by August 15.

To make sure that the IRS understands salon owners’ concerns about these regulations, please indicate any situations where it is not clear how to apply the regulations, situations that are not addressed at all by the regulations, and/or any concerns you have about how the regulations will affect your business. For example:

•Questions and concerns about the mechanics of how the tax works or is supposed to work.

•Situations where other businesses have recently started offering (or you have reason to believe they will be offering) indoor tanning services – without collecting or paying the indoor tanning tax – because of one of the two exceptions to the taxation of indoor tanning services: (1) phototherapy services provided by and on the premises of a licensed medical professional; and (2) indoor tanning services provided by a physical fitness facility (e.g., a gym or health club).

Anyone wishing to submit comments to the ITA to be included in the response they send to the IRS should e-mail the information to admin@theita.com and use “Suntan Tax Comments” in the subject line. Please call 202.367.1142 if you have any questions.

Editor's Note: Whether you submit your comments to the ITA or send them directly to the IRS, please participate!

Source:

Indoor Tanning Association