Raise your hands if you consider tampons and pads to be “luxury” items.
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“The Department’s double standard for men and women finds no support in the tax law and serves no goal other than to discriminate”, according to the filing.
The suit filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Thursday argues that medical items are exempt from sales tax in New Yok. In New York, things like Viagra, Rogaine, and Chapstick are exempt from being taxed for being “medical necessities”, but somehow tampons and pads didn’t make the cut.
The plaintiffs include Seibert, co-founder of Racket, a project meant to destigmatize periods and provide equal access to feminine hygiene products; Taja-Nia Henderson, a professor; Catherine O’Neil, a mathematician and data scientist; Jennifer Moore, a children’s program coordinator, and Natalie Brasington, a photographer. And on July 1 of a year ago, Canada officially halted sales tax on tampons, pads, and menstrual cups.
IIann M. Maazel, the women’s lawyer, said in a statement: ‘It’s time for NY to stop taxing women for being women’.
We could soon see the end of the controversial tampon tax – well, in NY at least. “I have no idea why states would tax these as luxury items”, he said. “A tax on tampons and sanitary pads is a tax on women”.
Last month, The New York Times published a piece by its editorial board calling for the end of the discriminatory tax, while in a recent Daily Show segment on what female voters are drawn to in this election, correspondent Jessica Williams declared, “No tax on tampons, how about that?”
Tampons are not taxed in other states including IL.
Five women have filed a lawsuit to try to block New York’ state’s so-called tampon tax.
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NY isn’t the only state that may change the tax status of feminine products, as California, Utah, and Virginia are also facing similar cases. There is no way these products would be taxed if men had to use them’.
