Governor Andrew Cuomo on Thursday (21 July) signed a legislation that will exempt all these products from state and local sales tax, saving women an estimated $10m (£7.6m) a year.
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Feminine hygiene products were taxable ever since the state sales tax was implemented in 1965, even as several other goods – including dietary and family planning products – were tax exempt, the press release said.
Tampon tax still exists in around 40 states in the U.S. – though IL and Florida are also trying to repeal the tax.
Either way, the lifting of the “tampon tax” in NY is another step toward making these necessary devices available to all who need them, especially New York’s poor and homeless populations.
New York State’s tax code previously stated, “Feminine hygiene products are generally used to control a normal bodily function and to maintain personal cleanliness”, and thus were not exempt from sales tax.
NY is now the sixth state to abolish the so-called “tampon tax” – which classifies feminine hygiene products as non-necessities and subjects them to a “luxury” tax.
Sue Serino, a Dutchess County Republican. “This day is long overdue and I commend Governor Cuomo, as well as my colleagues in the Senate, for helping to finally make this tax a thing of the past”.
“The tampon tax is regressive”, she said.
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State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) said New York’s 10 million women of child-bearing age will no longer be burdened by a “regressive” tax every month.
