Women have really no other choice but to purchase sanitary products each month for many years of their lives. And in many countries the government can essentially take advantage of this necessity by assigning a particular tax to these products. For that reason, many women around the world are protesting the “tampon tax” as a form of discrimination.
Most governments assign a tax percentage to the majority of goods and services, and they have jurisdiction over which products might warrant higher or lower taxes. But does it really make sense to charge women tax on something they literally can’t do without when they are already paying for the products themselves? (Not to mention the fact that women on average make less than men doing the same job.)
Some countries have profited from the tampon tax more than others. For example in Germany, the value-added tax (VAT) for tampons is 19 percent while the VAT for luxury item salmon caviar is just 7 percent, according to Global Post.
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In the United States, five states don’t have sales tax, and Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have waived taxes on sanitary products. The rest of the states do still charge tax and the percentage varies between 4 and 9 percent.
In the U.K. and Malaysia, campaigners have fought to lower the taxes and did see some minor response and a lowering of percentage, but nothing very significant, and the underlying goal is really to have zero tax on these items.
In Australia, the goods and services tax (GST) is 10 percent for sanitary products, and Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s sister, Christine Forster, actually made a cameo in this anti-tampon-tax rap video.
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In some countries it’s way more. Hungary taxes these kind of products at 27 percent. In Denmark, Sweden and Norway it’s 25 percent.
But, thankfully, some countries have decided to scrap the VAT altogether, like Ireland, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Tanzania, Lebanon and just recently Canada.
Because in the U.S. states can make these decisions independently, maybe some of the other states will soon follow suit with the ones who have decided to eliminate the VAT on these products.
A campaign called Bloody Disgrace has been created where people can learn more about the issue as well as sign a petition. Women can even click on their age group to find out “how much the ‘luxury’ of having your period” has cost you so far.
Photo: Flickr user Katie Anderson
