STOP TAXING OUR PERIODS! PERIOD.
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf has joined forces with Cosmopolitan, the world’s largest women’s magazine, to spread awareness and acceptance of women’s (totally natural and healthy!) periods and galvanize a No Tax On Tampons campaign in the United States. Jen wrote this overview for Bloomberg Tax News describing the rapid progress of the campaign.
We are part of a global movement. In 2015 activists in Canada succeeded in eliminating the national Goods and Services tax (GST) on menstrual products; in France the Value Added Tax (aka the VAT, a tax applied to items deemed to be a “non-essential luxury”) was reduced. The fight came to a stunning conclusion in the U.K. when the European Union announced in March that the VAT could be lifted on tampons and pads (GO Laura Coryton!).
The U.S. Stop Taxing Our Periods! Period. petition on change.org has already picked up nearly 60,000 signatures. And it is making a difference! Three states (and the City of Chicago) eliminated the tampon tax in 2016 … THANK YOU New York, Connecticut and Illinois! California’s tampon tax bill, the first introduced in 2016 (with bipartisan support), is still pending; Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Wisconsin also introduced bills this year. Unfortunately, in Utah an ALL MALE committee swiftly rejected the proposal! Seriously. Our work is cut out for us.
Meanwhile the tampon tax has made headlines and blown up the Internet, including coverage in TIME, NPR, CNN, Newsweek, Salon, Governing, Mic, Cosmo, Upworthy and the Guardian, among so many others. The New York Times The Upshotand the Washington Post WonkBlog weighed in with key policy analysis. The Hill predicted politicians will make it a 2016 campaign issue as they seek women’s votes. From CalWatchDog.com: “The issue is a political winner. Period.” And The Atlantic: “The Tampon Tax in the Spotlight.”
The New York Times issued a hard-hitting editorial calling for an end to the tampon tax. Even President Obama has called on states to scrap the tampon tax, acknowledging the gender inequity (and that it is an inevitable result of male-dominated political leadership). And a cutting-edge lawsuit has been filed in New York State.
Please read our letter below … and then add your name, share the petition and help spread the word!
Click HERE to sign … Stop Taxing Our Periods! Period.
PETITIONING U.S. STATE LEGISLATORS
We demand that the 40 U.S. states that impose sales tax on feminine hygiene products stop taxing our periods. Instead, follow the example of those states that have eliminated this unfair tax: Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
As anyone who menstruates knows, dealing with a period is a monthly necessity, and a costly one at that. Women already spend upwards of $70 a year on sanitary products like tampons, pads, and menstrual cups. These items are absolute “necessities” – not an option, not a luxury. Millions require them, month after month and year after year, to be productive members of society.
Eliminating the “Tampon Tax” is simply the FAIR and EQUAL thing to do.
This summer, Canada abolished its longstanding national tax on menstrual products. Activists around the world, notably in the U.K. and Australia, are insisting their governments do the same. Change in the United States is imperative – yet here, it must happen state by state, where sales tax is levied and collected.
Therefore we are simultaneously petitioning each and every one of the 40 states that continue to profit from our menstrual periods: Treat women and girls equally and eliminate this unfair and discriminatory tax.
THANK YOU to The New York Times
for such thorough coverage of the Tampon Tax!
Click below to watch the Tampon Tax on prime time!
No Tax On Tampons (“Yeah, I said it!”)
