tampon tax

The standard VAT rate is currently 20%, and this rate applies to most goods and services. But, there are also some things that are charged at a reduced rate of 5% – including sanitary protection products.

Although 5% is obviously better that 20%, some things are exempt from VAT altogether such as postage stamps, cycle helmets, or financial and property transactions. And while that’s great, it’s eventually left many questioning why are we still paying any VAT at all on sanitary products – something so many women rely on every single month to allow them to carry on living their lives as normal.

Tampons and other ‘sanitary protection products’ are currently classed as ‘luxury’, ‘non-essential’ products, and the government have stated that EU rules stop them from lowering the VAT any further than 5% or scrapping the tax entirely.

At the moment, Austalia is leading the way – beginning 2019 by officially scrapping the tampon tax for residents.

But what about the UK?

Back in 2015, 320,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org to scrap the Tampon Tax, and in March 2016, Parliament accepted an amendment proposed by Labour MP Paula Sherriff that would end Tampon Tax once and for all in the UK.