The tampon tax: why the controversy?

Tampons. With just a single word, you can you terrify anyone from prepubescent boys to the middle-aged men in government who believe it should not only be considered but also priced as a luxury item.

That’s right.

The tax in question is the VAT which was first introduced in 1973. Since then, new laws have been introduced to decrease the tax on certain objects, mainly called the zero-rated objects of the 1994 law. These include children books and bicycle helmets, but also flapjacks, jaffa cakes and even prawn crackers: God forbid we have tax-free female hygiene.

A petition, ingeniously called “Stop taxing periods. Period.” has gathered over 250,000 signatures since its creation last year. However, this is still not enough. The motion was raised on October 26th in Parliament and was promptly shot down, at 305 votes to 287.

In 2000, Labour MP Dawn Primarolo managed to reduce the tampon tax from 17.5% to our current 5%. But that’s still not enough.

A petition, ingeniously called “Stop taxing periods. Period.” has gathered over 250,000 signatures since its creation last year.

Consider this: the average woman uses 20 tampons per cycle. This amounts to 240 tampons per year. At Rootes grocery store, a box of Tampax costs £2.72. This means that a female from Warwick University could be looking at spending almost £100 for the duration of a three-year course. You might be thinking this it isn’t a lot of money. But minimum wage in the UK is currently £5.30 for 18 to 20-year-olds, meaning that you would have to spend over 6 hours’ worth of pay per year on an inarguable basic necessity.

This affects 15 million women in the UK of menstrual age. More than half of the population either has needed or will need some sort of sanitary protection every month. But they still have to pay unjust taxes on it. Additionally, contraceptives are free in the UK. We can all agree that sex is a choice; menstruation is not. These products are vital to us, they are not luxurious.

Back to the matter at hand: this was all debated this past week but they failed to take it forward.

There are currently 191 female MPs in Westminster – out of the 650 total members – with power to vote on this issue. Over 93% of Conservative MPs voted against scrapping the tax. Incidentally, only 20% of these MPs are women.

Over 93% of Conservative MPs voted against scrapping the tax.

Labour MP Stella Creasey told a British Conservative MP that she would not let him speak again until he used the proper terms: sanitary towels and tampons, as opposed to the euphemistic “product.” Ms Creasey addressed Sir William Cash: “Unless he is prepared to talk about the actual products that we are discussing, I will not take any more interventions from him.”

When former PM Gordon Brown initially slashed the tax in 2000, the cut was not mentioned in the Budget, since he felt uncomfortable using the word ‘”tampon,” alleged his ex-spin doctor, Damian McBride, in his book. One MP who voted for the continuing tax is our Secretary of State and Justice, Michael Gove. Not everything is doomed, however. Coventry South’s MP, Mr Jim Cunningham, actually voted for the amendment in price.

Meanwhile, the European Commission has announced that they will review VAT rates in the coming year. Until then, make the most of your luxuries, girls.