Unfair Sales Tax to be Imposed on Massage Therapy
Gov. Paterson's budget proposal includes new sales tax on salons, spas, weight loss centers, and gyms, and included in the language is sales tax on massage therapy. However, the proposed language excludes taxation on chiropracters, doctors, dentists, nurses and anyone else licensed under Title VIII of the State Education Law. Massage therapy is defined and licensed as a health profession under Title VIII - we are not service professionals, we are health care professionals.
Nearly all of my massage patients come to see me because they are in pain - and those that don't have a specific complaint when they come in invariably state that they didn't realize how stiff and sore they were until they started to feel better during the session.
Being forced to pay sales tax means all massage therapists will either have to collect it from our patients, thereby raising the price they are paying for their health care, or take it out of the fee we already charge. It also undermines the work we have done over the years to have massage recognized as health care, and as having far more value than a pedicure or a haircut.
If you're interested in helping to get the language of the budget changed, please see here for more info and letter-writing suggestions: http://www.amtany.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=2
Thanks, and don't forget to stretch!
Nearly all of my massage patients come to see me because they are in pain - and those that don't have a specific complaint when they come in invariably state that they didn't realize how stiff and sore they were until they started to feel better during the session.
Being forced to pay sales tax means all massage therapists will either have to collect it from our patients, thereby raising the price they are paying for their health care, or take it out of the fee we already charge. It also undermines the work we have done over the years to have massage recognized as health care, and as having far more value than a pedicure or a haircut.
If you're interested in helping to get the language of the budget changed, please see here for more info and letter-writing suggestions: http://www.amtany.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=2
Thanks, and don't forget to stretch!