Two taxes on one tanning visit
A UV tanning visit can carry two taxes that go to two different governments. The federal excise on indoor tanning is 10% of what the client pays for the service. The IRS says you collect it when the client pays and send it in each quarter with Form 720. State and local sales tax, where it applies to tanning or to retail, is reported on a separate return, on the schedule your state sets.
A till that adds both into one tax line leaves you pulling them apart by hand before either return. TanVision keeps them apart from the moment you set a price. Each tanning item carries its own excise rate beside its sales tax rate, the till works both out line by line, and every sale line stores the excise and its rate next to the sales tax and its rate.
Set the taxes on each item
Tax lives on the item. In Inventory, every tanning package and membership has a sales tax setting and an excise rate. Retail products do not carry an excise rate at all, so a bottle of lotion cannot pick up the tanning excise by mistake.
- Sales tax: put the item in a named tax category, give it a rate of its own, or leave it on the salon's rate. Change a category's rate once and every item in it follows.
- Exempt: mark an item as not taxable when your state does not tax it. That switch covers sales tax only. The excise is a separate setting, so a service your state leaves untaxed still carries the federal excise you set on it.
- Excise: type the rate on each UV tanning package and membership. Leave it empty on spray tans. The IRS says the tax does not apply to spray tans or to topical creams and lotions.
- Walk-ins: a walk-in has no package to carry an excise, so you set it once at Sales tax → Tanning tax on walk-ins: not charged, which is the default, added on top, or included in the walk-in price, at the rate you type. It applies in UV rooms only, never in spray, red light, sauna or wellness rooms.
- Precision: rates are stored exactly, in parts per million, so a county rate such as 8.375% is kept as typed rather than as a rounded decimal.
TanVision never looks a rate up and never guesses one. You type what applies to your salon, and the software applies it the same way on every sale.
Added on top, or already inside the price
Some salons price a membership at $129.00 plus tax. Others advertise $129.00 flat and keep the tax inside it. Each item has two boxes for this: Sales tax is already inside the price, and Excise is already inside the price.
Included is real arithmetic, not a label. TanVision takes the tax back out of the price and records the smaller base, so the excise on the line is 10% of the base it sits on, to the cent. Here is a $129.00 membership with a 10% excise and no sales tax on the service.
| Setting | Client pays | Base | Excise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excise added on top | $141.90 | $129.00 | $12.90 |
| Excise inside the price | $129.00 | $117.27 | $11.73 |
Where your state also taxes the service, both taxes are worked out from the same base, whether they are added or included.
Separate lines on the receipt and in the reports
- Receipt: sales tax and excise print as two separate lines under the subtotal.
- Day sheet: the day's excise appears as its own figure beside the takings.
- Tax liability on the reports dashboard: taxable base, exempt sales and tax collected for any date range.
- Tax audit report: sales grouped by the rate actually charged, every taxed line with its ticket, and a section called The second tax, remitted separately. That section lists each excise line with its date, client, base, rate, amount, ticket and who sold it, with a total at the bottom.
Each sale line keeps the rate it was charged at. If a rate changes partway through a quarter, the report still shows what you actually collected on each sale rather than today's rate applied to old tickets.
TanVision does not file anything for you. You or your preparer carry the quarter's excise total to Form 720, where indoor tanning services are reported under IRS No. 140, and the sales tax figures to your state return. The IRS says no deposits are required for this tax; the full amount is paid with each quarterly return.
The same numbers at the till and at check-in
A tax setting only helps if every place that takes money uses it. The till and the check-in screen price through one shared calculation, and the total on the screen comes from the same code the server uses to record the sale. An upgrade charged at check-in carries the taxes of the package it upgrades. The shop's online checkout writes its sale through the same rules as the till, and a monthly auto-pay charge is each line's price with its tax. An automated check fails the build if any pricing path stops reading an item's tax category.
Discounts come off before tax, so a sale price or a member discount lowers the tax along with the price. Gift certificates carry neither tax when they are sold; whatever a certificate is later spent on is taxed at that item's own rates.
What it does not do yet
- It does not split one bundled price between tanning and retail. If you sell bundles, read how the excise applies to packages and bundles before you set the rates.
- It does not choose, look up or update rates, and it does not file Form 720 or your state return. Nothing here is tax advice; confirm your rates and exemptions with your tax preparer.
Related features
The tax settings sit on the same items as your memberships and packages and your retail and lotion stock. The totals feed reports, gift certificates stay out of the tax until they are spent, and spray tan and red light rooms sell on the same till as UV. For who owes the excise and how to file it, read the tanning excise tax guide.
To see the tax audit report built from your own price list, book a demo.
Common questions
- Does TanVision add the 10% tanning tax automatically?
- It adds it to every item you set it on. You type the excise rate once on each UV package and membership in Inventory, and from then on every sale of that item carries it as its own line, at the till and on upgrades charged at check-in. Walk-in visits in UV rooms carry it once you switch on Tanning tax on walk-ins under Sales tax.
- Is spray tanning subject to the tanning excise?
- The IRS says the indoor tanning tax does not apply to spray tans or to topical creams and lotions. In TanVision you leave the excise rate empty on spray items, and retail products carry no excise at all.
- Can I show prices with the tax already included?
- Yes. Tick Sales tax is already inside the price or Excise is already inside the price on the item. The client pays the listed price, and TanVision takes the tax back out and records the smaller base, so both filings still add up.
- Where do I find the excise figure for Form 720?
- Run the tax audit report for the quarter. The excise has its own section, one row per sale line, with a total. Indoor tanning services go on Form 720 under IRS No. 140.
- What happens to tax when a client pays with a gift certificate?
- Selling the certificate charges no tax. When it is spent, whatever it buys carries its normal sales tax and excise.