Lupin 2024

‘Tampon tax’ movement builds momentum

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Efforts to quash sales taxes on tampons and sanitary napkins are gaining steam around the country.

In a video and an article this week on the so-called “period tax,” the Associated Press reported that five women have filed a class-action lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court claiming that the state’s taxation of such feminine care products are unlawful.

They argue that tampons and sanitary napkins don’t receive medical product exemptions from taxation like many other personal care items used by women and men — such as lip balm, foot powder, dandruff shampoo, incontinence pads and hair growth products — and that this places a discriminatory and an unfair cost on women.

“This is really a violation of the equal protection clause of both the New York state constitution and the federal constitution because it’s a tax on women for being women,” Zoe Salzman, the attorney in the New York case, told AP in the video. “And there’s no question in my mind that if men had to use these products every month, they’d already be tax-exempt.”

Salzman noted in the video that New York is one of 40 states that levy a tax on tampons and sanitary napkins. AP reported that at least seven states are mulling legislation on the issue.


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