It’s 2016, and you were hoping for a reprieve on the sales tax when it came to tampons. Sadly, that time has yet to come.
Last Wednesday, the house revenue and taxation committee in Utah voted against a bill to make female hygeine products exempt from taxes, according to the Associated Press. Even better, the committee that voted on this was made up of only men!
Items that are given these sale taxes are considered to be non-essential, or “luxury” items. The term “luxury items” can entail things like a big-screen television, or a new Macbook Pro…and tampons. See something that doesn’t fit? Any woman can tell you that pads and tampons aren’t luxuries—They’re necessary products that allow women to live life to the fullest when we’re on our periods, without bleeding all over everything and ruining all our clothes.
Most women would probably much rather buy real luxury products (like a few televisions) with the extra money they’ve had to spend on these feminine “hygeine products.”
Don’t lose hope yet. Some states are jumping on the “don’t tax me for having my period” train. North Dakota and Connecticut don’t currently tax pads, but still tax tampons. In addition to those states, California is working on potentially ending the tax of feminine hygiene products once and for all.
That’s one small step for women in California, and one giant leap for the wallets (and uteruses) of all womankind.