Eight members of Utah’s 11-member, all-male panel for the house revenue and taxation committee voted on Wednesday against a bill that would make feminine hygiene products, incontinence pads and children’s diapers tax-free. According to the Associated Press, their logic resides on that “they want to make the tax system predictable.” They believe that by placing “subjective variations on what is or is not exempt could do just the opposite.”
I don’t know, Utah. New Yorkers who cross the border to New Jersey to avoid paying sales tax seem to be doing just fine.
Sales tax varies on a state by state basis. It originated during the Great Depression as a way to generate income by taxing non-necessary items. However, it is the adjective “non-necessary” that is highly variable and inconsistent. For example, North Dakota and Connecticut do not tax incontinence pads, but they tax tampons. In California, candy, incontinence creams and washes are exempt from sales tax, but tampons are not.
As all women know, personal hygiene products are not luxury items. They absolutely should not be taxed as luxury items. In an interview with YouTube star, Ingrid Nilsen, even President Barack Obama weighed in on the subject. He doesn’t understand why 40 states still tax feminine hygiene products. When Nilsen asked him why he believed the tax still exists, he responded, “I suspect it’s because men were making the laws when those taxes were passed.”
Since the issue has drawn much attention in recent months, some states such as California have begun to consider legislation that would drop the tax on personal hygiene products. In Wisconsin, Democratic Rep. Susan Duckworth proposed a bill that, if passed, would offer feminine hygiene products for free in public buildings.
I think that’s a great idea. I think we all can agree that tampons and pads are just as necessary as toilet paper. It’s a pain to have to go to the store to spend money on a biological function that we can’t control. Removing the sales tax from tampons and other feminine hygiene products would certainly make that time of the month a little less painful.
