The New Jersey Legislature has passed a bill that will phase out the state's cosmetic medical procedure gross receipts tax, according to an NJ.com report.
The state currently imposes a cosmetic medical procedures gross receipts tax on the purchase of cosmetic medical procedures. The tax applies to amounts paid for services and for any property or occupancy required for, or associated with, the performance of a cosmetic medical procedure, and is paid by the subject of the procedure and collected by persons responsible for billing the services.
The bill — A3646 (S1988) —reduces the 6 percent tax rate currently imposed on the gross receipts from cosmetic medical procedures to a 4 percent rate with the first calendar quarter beginning after the date of enactment; to 2 percent from July 1, 2012, until July 1, 2013, and to 0 percent on and after July 1, 2013, effectively ending the imposition of the tax.
The phase-out provided by the bill gradually alleviates the financial and administrative burdens associated with the tax. Since the gross receipts tax was imposed in 2004, the tax has increased overall costs for recipients of cosmetic medical procedures, and imposed an administrative burden on the medical offices billing the procedures, according to a copy of the bill.
"Anytime you can roll back a tax it's good news," says Jeffrey Shanton, chair, Advocacy & Legislative Affairs Committee, for NJAASC. "We are happy that our legislators understand the difficulties of doing business in New Jersey, and have seen fit to help us with this legislation."
The bill was originally introduced in the Senate in May 2010 and in the Assembly in Jan. 2011. It passed out of the Senate in Sept. 2011 and was passed out of the Assembly on Jan. 9.
Learn more about the New Jersey Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers.
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