URGENT! News for NC Massage Therapists, Bodyworkers and the businesses that employ them - please share
The NC legislature is considering taxing certain "pleasure services." ALL MTs in NC are referred to in Chapter 90 of the General Statutes as "licensed healthcare providers" and the setting that someone works in has nothing to do with that designation. As such, unless ALL healthcare services and providers are taxed, massage therapists should not be singled out as a "pleasure service." The only way to stop this is to contact your legislator NOW!
Please share this information with every massage therapist you know in NC and every business that employs massage therapists. Spa/salon owners and individual estheticians, nail technicians and cosmetologists - you may want to research how much more this could affect your other services and business as well. As all of my information thus far is coming from the current members of the NC licensing board for massage and the state chapter of AMTA (American Massage Therapy Association) so at this point I am not sure how deeply spas and salons could be affected yet. I'll certainly pass on anything else I learn.
From the NC President of the AMTA, Ed Sansbury:
Many of you may be keeping up with the Legislature’s consideration to begin collecting sales tax on certain services in NC. Randolph and I have been checking on this. Thanks to some quick action on his part, I was able to make contact with the Office for Tax Counsel for the Senate. It appears from our conversation that the Senate Finance Committee is leaning towards exempting “therapeutic massage” but taxing other services considered more pleasurable only. My impression was that “therapeutic” would mean referred by a doctor or other health care provider. The following are points I sought to make:
- ALL licensed massage therapists in NC are in section 90 and are referred to as” licensed healthcare providers”. The places they work do not determine that status. Apparently many in the legislature think there is a distinction.
- It would not be fair to tax us unless they chose to do the same to all NC providers in section 90.
In NC individuals seeking physical therapy do not have to have a doctor recommendation and therefore individuals seeking massage should not be bound by that either. - Because there are many “spas” that offer medical service, the name of a location does not determine if the services offered are therapeutic or not.
These are the points I can remember from our discussion. Even though the main consideration at this time appears to be in the Senate, I would strongly encourage all of you to contact the individuals on both the Senate and Finance Committees and encourage them to treat us the same as all other healthcare professionals in Chapter 90. I am attaching their contact information for your convenience. Right now the talk is still in committee. It would be much better to stop it there than let it get in a bill and go to the Senate for consideration. I plan to contact all the AMTA-NC members with an e-blast ASAP. We need to let the legislators hear from as many therapists as possible on this matter. Thanks for your efforts.
Ed
I encourage all of you to contact your legislators with your questions and to discourage this change ASAP. Here is the address for the NC legislature. You can find out who represents you simply by providing the 9 digit zip code shown on your driver's license.
http://www.ncleg.net/GIS/RandR07/Home.html
Together we can make things happen!
Felicia
Categories: General,Success in Life and Business
Tags: NC legislature NC LMBT massage therapy sales tax
Yesterday's News Observer also had an article about this
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1579697.html
The issue concerns "pleasure services" such as haircuts, pedicures, etc., and the fear here is that since many MTs are employed in salons and spas that they would get caught up in the tax. However, GS Chapter 90 does identify all MTs in NC as Licensed Healthcare Professionals, regardless of what setting they work in, and as such would exempt us. We do not want to be singled out because of where we work.
If MD, chiropractic and other professional healthcare services were to be taxed (and believe me, the governor is looking as hard as she can for places to make money), then we would have to bow to that. We would all prefer not to have to see taxes raised anywhere on any service, as it affects us all. Contact your legislators like Felicia says. Don't sit on your hands on this one!
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Felicia, Ed and Laura thanks for letting us know about this! I'm on it..sharing with all LMT's I know. This is ridiculous.
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Thanks Laura. As an owner of a now defunct spa that was hit hard by the current economic times, I am fairly certain how this tax increase will affect all businesses that appear to be luxuries, especially in cities like mine where unemployment rates are much higher than they are in bigger cities like Raleigh and Charlotte. Six and three quarters percent of a price increase may not seem like much, but I can guarantee that the cost will not just be passed on to the consumer. Massage therapists, bodyworkers and spas of all kinds that are already struggling to keep their doors open will most likely have to cut their service prices by an equal amount to keep prices the same and clients coming in. Or they may opt to include the sales tax in the service cost and "back it out" of the total in order to pay the state.
I hope that the governor and our legislature can find a better way to improve revenue shortfalls! Again, I encourage everyone affected by this to speak up and get involved!
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Felicia, thank you for the information. You may wish to know that ProSolutions Software, Inc. has the ability to tax certain services as, unfortunately, NC is not the first state that this has happened to. I hope that you defeat it, but if not, our Point of Sale can handle it.
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As Licensed or certified massage therapists, by definition, we perform therapy. This is by definition therapeutic.
We shouldn't have to have a doctor's perscription to call it therapeutic!
Many people who need massage already can't afford it.
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Agreed. I have many clients that see me for pain relief and strss management who have cut back the number of sessions per month because of the economy. That doesn't even include the folks that only see me when they get a gift certificate or an extra windfall. I hate to think that this increase will hurt those clients more - literally and financially - or that the therapists or spas they go to will be forced to cut their pricing or "eat" the tax themselves in order to keep their appointment books full.
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Not only am I contacting my legislators, I am contacting my clients, since this ultimately affects them! This is the email I just sent out:
During our difficult economic times, the State is considering taxing certain "pleasure" services, and somehow they consider massage to be a pleasure service. While massage can often BE pleasurable, it is a service that has medical benefits. In fact, the state recognizes therapists as "licensed healthcare providers". If massage therapists are to tax their service (which is, of course, taxing the client), then ALL healthcare providers should be taxed. It seems that some in the legislature make a distinction between "medical massage" and other massage. No matter where the massage is provided - hospital, chiropractor's office, spa, practitioner's home - it has medical benefits.
Please contact your legislators to vote NO for taxing a medical benefit, which includes ALL massage.
The following are part of the NC General Assembly in this area:
Joe Sam Queen 919-733-3460 joesam.queen@ncleg.net
Tom Apodaca 919-733-5745 Tom.Apodaca@ncleg.net
Martin Nesbitt 919-715-3001 Martin.Nesbitt@ncleg.net
Susan Fisher 919-715-2013 Susan.Fisher@ncleg.net
Bruce Goforth 919-733-5746 Bruce.Goforth@ncleg.net
Ray Rapp 919-733-5732 Ray.Rapp@ncleg.net
Jane Whilden 919-715-3012 Jane.Whilden@ncleg.net
W. David Guice 919-715-4466 David.Guice@ncleg.net
Thanks for your attention to this issue.
Sincerely,
Renee Robb-Cohen, LMBT #688
Voted Best Massage Therapist in WNC 2002, 2004
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Thanks, Renee. I really appreciate the reminder to alert our clients about this issue. Infact, because of your email about it, I just sent out a letter to my own massage clients as well as those of my former spa, Inspire Skin & Body. If you get a moment, can you remind everyone what area or county you are from in Western NC?
I encourage everyone to share there comments on my blog and to direct your clients here for more information. I will keep adding to it as I get new information and appreciate it if you will do the same!
Felicia
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I just wanted to share some national press that has resulted from the email I sent out to all my spa and media contacts. Skin, Inc is a well respected trade journal for esthetics and the spa industry.
http://www.skininc.com/spabusiness/regulations/49206152.html
I'll continue to post items on my blog as they come up. In the meantime, please consider talking to your local media about this issue. Send them a copy of your letter along links to the posts and information on this blog with a request that they talk about this issue. Be willing and available to be interviewed.
Here are the links for the posts on Stopping NC Sales Tax on Massage Therapy and other "pleasure services" such as spa services.
http://blog.spalutions.com/2009/06/25/urgent-news-for-nc-massage-therapists-bodyworkers-and-the-businesses-that-employ-them--please-share.aspx
http://blog.spalutions.com/2009/06/25/my-letter-against-sales-tax-for-massage-therapy-and-spasalon-services-in-nc.aspx
Thanks!
Felicia
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I'm located in Buncombe County. The legislators I listed were from Buncombe, Henderson, and Madison counties, since I have clients in all of these. I looked them up under the website for NC General Assembly, which lists each for the counties they represent.
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Here is another link for coverage that came out today on the website of another national publication I contacted, Massage Magazine.
http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=7002&catid=1&title=tax-on-massage-proposed-in-north-carolina
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Massage is considered one of the best natural stress relievers by a large majority of the medical community. With >90% of diseases in one way or another affected by our stress levels it makes "perfect" sense to further discourage the general public from receiving therapeutic massages on a regular basis. Therefore lets impose a massage tax and make sure our stress levels remain high.
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Well said, Christian! I've thought about that fact a lot since I heard about this potential change. Ive also felt my own stress levels rise while contemplating how a new tax on massage and other spa services would affect and "stress out" all of the businesses and professionals that provide them. (Maybe they should name it the Stress Tax!) Please spread the word to your clients and colleagues to write NC legislators NOW before it is too late to stop the increase.
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