A “luxury item” is probably my last association with a pad, tampon, mooncup, or anything related to my period. But in the U.K., that’s what women’s sanitary products are classified as, and they’re all subject to a "tampon tax." And Australia, Slovakia, and some states in the U.S. (California, New York, and Wisconsin) are in on it, too.
On October 26, members of parliament (MPs) in the U.K. rejected an amendment to remove the tampon tax by 305 to 287 votes, despite more than 250,000 British people signing a petition to remove it.
So how does it work? The European Union’s Value Added Tax, or VAT, is a general tax that’s applied to goods or services that’s currently charged on women’s sanitary products, which have been classified as “non-essential, luxury” items.
Hence, the term “tampon tax” has been adopted by activists in the fight to remove what Labour MP Paula Sherriff called “a tax on women, pure and simple.” The tax currently stands at adding a 5 percent markup to women’s sanitary products.
“The average woman buys, uses and throws away 11,000 tampons during her lifetime,” Natasha Preskey wrote in an Independent column last week. “In my local Tesco [grocery], a box of 20 regular Tampax costs £3.14 [$4.84]. This means that someone earning minimum wage must work approximately 38 full working days to pay for her lifetime’s supply.”
Absurd, right? After hearing that the tampon tax is here to stay, some quick-witted ladies took to social media to comment on how silly the “luxury” designation on women’s sanitary products really is. Enjoy some of this week’s highlights.
Watch the parody campaign "Luxuriously Taxable" below.
And be sure to keep the women your life informed and SHARE this with them!
