Stop Unfair Targeted Business License Fees: New exorbitant annual business license fees of $1,000 , exclusively targeting massage therapy must be adjusted back to rates of other businesses (other businesses gross than $100,000 pay $35 - $50 annually and before 2022 massage therapists paid that rate as well).

The Town of Herndon (TOH) Finance Director is interpreting the recently uncovered code regarding extra fees for “massage parlors” to apply to all massage therapy establishments in the TOH, resulting in an adjustment in business license fees due.  Business license fees for massage therapy business owners that were previously taxed at the same rates as all other business (most paid from $30 or $50 annually, based on income) are now being charged $1000 annually, regardless of sales. Licensed massage therapy businesses in the Town of Herndon should immediately be brought back in line to the same rates as other businesses.

Massage therapists are seen by the Commonwealth of Virginia as allied health professionals, licensed by the Department of Health Professionals, Board of Nursing. We are seen under the Town of Herndon zoning code as health care services and facilities.

• Massage therapists began being regulated in 1996 with certification and have been a licensed profession in Virginia since 2016.
• The terms massage therapy and massage therapist are defined and protected in Virginia code. The term massage parlor is not a defined term in Virginia law, Fairfax County or Town of Herndon code.
• The term massage parlor, used in the recently uncovered code, is antiquated language that is now used as a euphemism for sex work at best, and human trafficking at worst. It is NOT massage therapy.
• Links to all the code that relates back to massage therapists and massage therapy at the state, county and town level that prove this, can be found here.  

Massage therapy licensure is now highly regulated, highly professional and a highly regarded profession. Licensure for massage therapy requires:

• at least 500 hours of initial training through a SCHEV certified school
• passing of the Federation of Massage Therapy Boards Exam (MBLex)
• background check and approval by Virginia Department of Health Professional’s Board of Nursing, and its five member Massage Advisory Board
• a minimum of 24 continuing education hours, including an ethics course, for every biennial renewal
• an annual Fairfax County Massage Therapist Permit (per therapist)
• an annual Fairfax County Massage Establishment Permit (per establishment)
• Town of Herndon Business business license
• Annual background checks at the County and Town level 

For all the above reasons, our massage therapy businesses in the Town of Herndon should not be charged as massage parlors. They are health care services, as defined in Town of Herndon zoning laws, and by the Virginia Department of Health Professionals and Board of Nursing, and should be treated as such for our business license fees as well.

While it is easy to think of this as a quick way to collect income, most massage therapist business owners would not have opened in the Town of Herndon if these fees applied to them.  The immediate implementation of this old code, falsely interpreted to include all massage therapy and massage therapist businesses, is causing undue burden on them and will likely cause most of them to leave town for other areas.   

We ask the Town to immediately bring the business fees currently being targeted at massage therapists back to the rates that other businesses pay, since they are not massage parlors.  Further, we support changing code for 2023 and beyond. Additionally, we ask the Town for an immediate change for 2022, to keep these businesses in our town. 

We know our Town Council and our Town strives to support small business.  Making this right and keeping these small businesses in town is a way to showcase support for small business in the Town of Herndon.