Thanks to a new tax that takes effect tomorrow, some small-business owners will get a first-hand look at Obamacare’s impact.

“The first present we get under this new health care law takes effect this week — and that is the tanning tax,” lawyer and small-business advocate Karen Harned said yesterday at The Bloggers Briefing ^[1], hosted by The Heritage Foundation.

The tax will hit small-business owners particularly hard ^[2], said Harned, who directs the Small Business Legal Center of the National Federation of Independent Business ^[3].

Approximately 19,000 “mom and pop” small businesses might be affected by the new tax — and those businesses will likely spend an average of more than $74 an hour to comply with federal tax paperwork burdens, according to a factsheet distributed by the NFIB.

“It’s really not about the big guys,” Harned said. “It’s about the little guys, and we really do think small-business owners got the short end of the stick by far with this law.”

The tanning tax is only a tiny part of the health care bill — a mere 26 lines in the 906-page law. Of far more concern is the individual mandate to buy health insurance ^[4].

“We believe the individual mandate, in particular, is unconstitutional,” Harned said. “Quite frankly, we view this as not just a health care issue anymore. I do not think it’s a stretch to say, if the government can require you to buy insurance simply because you’re alive, then, if they want a healthier society, they could require you to buy a gym membership. If they want a cleaner society, they could require you to buy a car every five years.”

That’s why, Harned said, the NFIB on May 14 joined 20 states in their lawsuit against the federal governmen ^[5]t challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare. She has high expectations for the case.

“We are hopeful this is a case the Supreme Court will take on to address the fundamental issue of what is the scope of Congress’ power to regulate all of us,” she said.

Cross-posted on the Washington Examiner’s Opinion Zone ^[6].