After Months of Protests, Tampons Will No Longer Be a ‘Luxury Good’ in France

[MsJaneFuzzyWuzzy]

2. well ... :)

These are the U.S. states that tax women for having periods

by Taryn Hillin | June 03, 2015 12:33 p.m.



Thanks to public pressure, Canada just became the first country to axe the “tampon tax”—the sales tax imposed on tampons, sanitary napkins, and other feminine hygiene products. Now, more and more women in countries like the U.K., Australia—and the U.S.—are demanding their governments do the same.

... Tampons, however, are rarely considered a necessity by state governments, and most states do not allow exemptions for them (nor do they even list them in their tax codes). Yet as every woman who has ever gotten her period knows, feminine hygiene products are not a choice; they’re a required part of being a woman. And the costs for these products can add up.

... Despite growing calls for tampon taxes to be eliminated in this country, we were unable to find a comprehensive listing of the states that do (and don’t) charge women for having a period. So we embarked on looking up every state’s tax code and reached out to every state’s Department of Revenue to see were they stand—and compiled the map above.

Sadly, only five states have actively made decisions not to tax tampons: Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and New Jersey. The rest either don’t have a sales tax or don’t consider tampons a “necessity.” ...