Glenn Hegar, Joan Huffman support eliminating “tampon tax”

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Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar and state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, have added their support to a yearslong name by some state legislators and ladies’s well being care advocates to take away taxes on menstrual merchandise like tampons, sanitary pads and pantyliners.

Hegar and Huffman stated they’d support efforts in subsequent 12 months’s legislative session to make such merchandise nontaxable.

Other well being care requirements, similar to medication and bandages, are exempt from sales tax in Texas. Advocates have called for the repeal of the tax, arguing that menstrual merchandise needs to be labeled as “wound care dressings,” which forestall bacterial infections and “maintain a moist or dry wound environment.” Given that wound dressings like Band-Aids are exempt from gross sales tax, supporters of repealing the gross sales tax on menstrual merchandise argue that taxing them discriminates on the premise of intercourse.

Menstrual merchandise are already tax-free in 24 states. Texas is amongst these states the place customers nonetheless pay tax on these merchandise.

Previous makes an attempt to repeal the gross sales tax in Texas have failed and can probably face extra hurdles throughout subsequent 12 months’s legislative session. Proposals to get rid of the gross sales tax on menstrual merchandise, spearheaded by state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, have come earlier than the legislature every session since 2017. None of these payments have made it to the governor’s desk.

But Huffman’s support of the measure because the chair of the Senate Finance Committee —that department’s funds chief — is notable. The 2017 invoice to take away the female hygiene tax died in that committee.

“Every woman knows that these products are not optional. They are essential to our health and well-being and should be tax-exempt,” she stated in a press launch Thursday saying her support.

Hegar pointed to Texas’ sturdy economic system and state revenues in explaining his support for the tax repeal. Given rising costs and inflation, Hegar stated the chance to exempt these merchandise from taxation is a vital want for Texans.

“Texas can absorb this lost revenue easily, but for countless Texas women, this will mean significant savings in their personal budgets over time,” Hegar stated in a press launch. “This is a small amount of money relative to the overall revenue outlook for Texas.”

Hegar’s newest income estimate for the subsequent two years, starting mid-July, initiatives Texas will generate $27 billion. The gross sales tax income on menstrual provides over the subsequent two years would signify about 0.1% of that quantity.

In Texas and throughout the nation, establishments are working to enhance higher entry to menstrual merchandise. Over the summer season, the Austin Independent School District spent over $150,000 to supply free menstrual merchandise to college students in bogs.

Correction: A model of the invoice to finish taxes on some menstrual merchandise cleared a committee in 2021 however by no means made it to the governor’s desk.

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