{"id":2104,"date":"2016-04-27T00:57:29","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T00:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-journal-of-law-and-public-policy.pantheonsite.io\/?p=2104"},"modified":"2016-04-27T00:57:29","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T00:57:29","slug":"why-its-time-we-talk-about-that-time-of-the-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/2016\/04\/27\/why-its-time-we-talk-about-that-time-of-the-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Why it\u2019s time we talk about \u201cThat Time of the Month\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"By Danielle Bernstein\n\n \n\nDon\u2019t worry about paying sales tax the next time you go to CVS to pick up a prescription, buy some condoms, or stock up on sunscreen. These items are exempt from sales tax<\/a> because they are considered medical necessities that are \u201cintended for use, internally or externally, in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of illnesses or diseases in human beings.\u201d But go to CVS to pick up a package of tampons? Time to pay up.\n\nUnder the current tax code tampons and pads are not medical necessities, instead they are classified as items \u201cused to maintain cleanliness.\u201d This designation places tampons and pads in the same category as cosmetics like lipstick and shampoo. Interestingly, dandruff shampoo made the cut for a \u201cnecessity\u201d and is not taxed.\n\nAny woman who has ever had to ask a stranger for an emergency tampon in the bathroom (and most of us have) knows this designation is incorrect. Tampons and pads are not<\/em> luxury items. As one woman put it<\/a>, \u201c[They are] one of the most important things for a woman to have available.\u201d And insofar as there is a spectrum of \u201cnecessity,\u201d tampons are certainly more necessary that treating someone\u2019s flaky scalp. Menstruation is not a choice, but rather a normal function of human bodies, and deserves recognition as such. Tampons and pads should be exempt from sales tax just like other medical necessities.\n\nSales tax is a state issue, where each state sets its own sales tax rates and exemptions. And to be sure, tampons and pads are not subjected to an additional tax. Rather, \u201cfeminine products,\u201d including tampons and pads, are often excluded from a state\u2019s list list of medical necessities. There are ten states<\/a> that exempt tampons and pads from sales tax, but this number drops to only five when you consider that five states have no state sales tax at all. Nationwide, female lawmakers are fighting to bring attention to this important women\u2019s health issue and update their respective states\u2019 tax codes.\n\nLast year, New York State assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal introduced A07555<\/a> (S6726) to amend paragraph 3 of subdivision (a) of section 1115 of the New York tax code. This amendment would specifically exclude \u201cfeminine hygiene products, including, but not limited to, sanitary napkins and tampons\u201d from the list of cosmetics subject to sales tax. Critics<\/a> of the bill argue exempting tampons and sanitary pads will increase taxes on other products to make up for lost revenue. Critics also argue that this will cause other groups to lobby for additional exemptions, which is why the tax code is riddled with quirky exceptions in the first place. (Did you know live circus performances are exempt from sales tax?) These arguments miss the mark.\n\nLet\u2019s take a hypothetical female resident of Ithaca. A box of 36 tampons costs around $7 at Wegman\u2019s. Assuming she uses one box per cycle she will spend roughly $84 on tampons per year. Over roughly 40 years of periods this number totals more than $3,300. At a sales tax rate of 8% (4% New York State, and 4% Tompkins County), this woman will pay almost $270 in sales taxes that Ithaca males do not have to pay. Of course, this number is subject to inflation and will vary with each woman\u2019s actual needs. Still, this estimate does not even take into account other arguably necessary feminine products, like liners or wipes. So while it is true that New York will lose tax revenue by exempting another item, is $270 really too high a price to pay for gender equality? I think not.\n\nImportantly, this money makes a difference particularly at the margins for women who depend on assistance programs like SNAP, which does not cover the cost of tampons or pads. Assemblywoman Rosenthal called the tax<\/a> \u201ca regressive tax on women and their bodies,\u201d which motivated her to introduce the bill. In fact, even President Obama said<\/a> in an interview \u201cthere\u2019s no reason this tax exists other than men made the law when those taxes were passed.\u201d\n\nMenstruation is not something men are eager to talk about. One advocate<\/a> said, \u201cThe message to women has been: \u2018Menstruation is your problem, ladies\u2026[y]our problem is to render it invisible.\u201d But feminism is not about putting down men; it is about gender equality and promoting women\u2019s rights. Several men have voiced support for this change in the Code, for example, Senator Joe Robach of the 56th Senate District said<\/a>, \u201c\u2026this care product should never have been taxed in the first place as it is a medical hygiene necessity.\u201d Senator Robach is one of three male co-sponsors of the bill. Similarly, the National Coalition For Men<\/a>, a nonprofit organization, offered written support<\/a> of a comparable bill in California in January.\n\nNew York must join Minnesota, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in recognizing that tampons and pads are medical necessities and deserve a spot amongst other sales tax exemptions. Female lawmakers are taking the initiative not only to correct this gender bias, but also to send the message that women should not be ashamed of their bodies. This is a citizen\u2019s movement, and women need to demand equality.\n\nA change.org campaign<\/a> to end the taxing of tampons and pads has already gained over 57,000 signatures. But as law students and feminists we can do more. We must push the NY Legislature to pass A07555 and lead the remaining 40 states, and the District of Columbia, to classify tampons and pads as medical necessities.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Danielle Bernstein   Don\u2019t worry about paying sales tax the next time you go to CVS to pick up a prescription, buy some condoms, or stock up on sunscreen. These items are exempt from sales tax because they are considered medical necessities that are \u201cintended for use, internally or externally, in the diagnosis, cure,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,16,27,28],"tags":[1344,1491,1492,1493,1502],"class_list":["post-2104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","category-authors","category-blog-news","category-recent-stories","category-student-blogs","tag-sales-tax","tag-tampon-tax","tag-tampons","tag-tampons-not-exempt-from-sales-tax","tag-tax-tampons"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}