Now is the time for tax-free tampons
Since when is dealing with a period a luxury?
1.27.2016
Assemblywomen Christina Garcia and Ling-Ling Chang are sick of the “tampon tax.” Fighting to eliminate the tax on feminine hygiene products in California, the duo presented their bill to the Board of Equalization last Tuesday, arguing that tampons and pads are necessities and the tax unfairly targets women. The Board unanimously agreed to back the bill, which would exempt pads and tampons from sales tax.
Garcia and Chang are not alone in their efforts. Cosmopolitan and Change.org created a petition demanding United States legislators to “Stop Taxing Our Periods.” These efforts are following suit of those in Canada, who ended the tax on feminine hygiene products in July and those in the U.K., Australia, and France who still have the “tampon tax” despite public disapproval.
Even president Barak Obama is stumped why 40 states tax pads, tampons, and other menstrual products as luxury goods. In a interview with YouTube vlogger Ingrid Nilson on Jan. 15, Obama admitted, “I have to tell you, I have no idea why states would tax these as luxury items. I suspect it’s because men were making the laws when those taxes were passed.”
The solution seems simple: don’t tax feminine hygiene products. But that isn’t as easy as it seems. There is no specific tax that is put on feminine hygiene products, only a sales tax that happens to apply to them. And since sales tax in the U.S. varies from state to state, the only way to relieve American women from paying the tax would be for all 50 states to eliminate the sales tax on pads and tampons. Good luck getting them to do that.
The average woman will use approximately 11,000 tampons or pads in her lifetime. At $7 a box with 36 tampons or pads per box, every woman spends about $2,138.88 on sanitary products over the course of her life. That’s a lot of money.
And while this is accepted as a price every woman must pay, the paradox lies in the fact that feminine hygiene products are being taxed as luxury items while there is nothing luxury about them. The Oxford Dictionary defines a luxury as “an inessential, desirable item that is expensive or difficult to obtain.” Considering that definition, I highly doubt that anyone could call tampons and pads a luxury. Even worse is the fact that some states tax tampons, but not Viagra and pregnancy tests – or even adult diapers, which, let’s be real, serve basically the same function.
I think most women across the world can agree that the prospect of a period without pads and tampons is quite scary. In third world countries where pads and tampons are not readily available, girls often have to miss school because of their period and low-income women are more susceptible to infections (due to having to use other materials as pads). If we didn’t have pads and tampons, who’s to say we wouldn’t suffer the same fate. Still think they’re a luxury? Think again, they’re a necessity.
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Facebook post: No one should be fined for being a woman.