Houston Chronicle
Texas already has a laundry listing of less-than-essential objects exempt from the state’s 6.25% gross sales tax, from yachts to male libido enhancers. Yet, when advocates counsel including one thing as important as tampons to that listing, lawmakers begin appearing like a dinner visitor making an attempt to keep away from selecting up the verify.
“‘We’re dealing with COVID; the budgets are already very tight; it’s going to be hard to have any kind of sales tax exemption,’” says Sahar Punjwani, with Texas Menstrual Equity Coalition, recounting excuses her group acquired from lawmakers. “It’s like, ’Well, if you’re not invested in making any sort of revenue off of those pretty mundane items that aren’t essential to health or wound care or anything like that, why are you so invested in making money off of a basic necessity?”
Texas is considered one of a slim majority of states — 26 in all— with a gross sales tax on menstrual merchandise, whilst a nationwide effort to undo the so-called “tampon tax” continues to construct momentum. In February, Michigan turned the newest state to dispose of its 6 p.c tampon tax.
After Punjwani realized the Michigan invoice handed partly as a result of a 2020 lawsuit difficult the legality of the state’s tax on menstrual merchandise, the Fort Bend County native and University of Chicago sophomore began organizing. Last 12 months, the menstrual fairness coalition discovered a regulation agency that will characterize them professional bono. Then final April, Punjwani took a visit to Doyle’s Pharmacy in Houston. She bought $21.63 value of tampons, panty liners and sanitary pads, saved her receipts, and submitted her declare for a $1.78 refund to the state Comptroller’s Office. In February, the comptroller denied her declare.
The coalition is protesting that ruling, and is requesting a listening to to argue that menstrual merchandise qualify as tax-free “wound care” objects akin to band-aids or gauze. Despite the clear similarities, tax specialists say the Comptroller’s Office has constantly denied wound care refunds for taxes paid on tampons. The comptroller can’t legally problem a coverage that contradicts state tax regulation, and the Legislature has been absent on altering the statute with respect to menstrual merchandise. State Rep. Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat, has filed a invoice to finish the tampon tax in each legislative session since 2017. None have made it to the ground.
Such inertia is not solely irritating however, on its face, discriminatory. The authorized argument is easy: Women menstruate, due to this fact they’re disproportionately affected by the gross sales tax on menstrual merchandise. Continuing to tax these merchandise, whereas giving objects akin to male libido enhancers and prostate nutritional vitamins a free experience, is the form of blatant inequity that Punjwani’s protest is aimed toward and that the state ought to treatment. Laura Shoemaker, one of many attorneys representing the coalition, plans to exhaust each administrative avenue earlier than deciding whether or not to maneuver ahead with a lawsuit.
While Texas lawmakers have handed carve-outs for a number of seemingly arbitrary objects — cowboy boots, anybody? — there are various exemptions with stable public coverage rationales. Groceries, as an illustration, usually are not topic to gross sales taxes. Medical provides, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing tools are additionally tax-exempt.
The notion that tampons are by some means much less needed than these things is a mirrored image of how we discuss, or don’t discuss, about menstruation.
Opponents of ending the tampon tax argue doing so would rob the state of essential gross sales tax income. Let’s put that into perspective: The state estimates $20 million in misplaced income, a tiny sliver of the roughly $36 billion Texas raked in from gross sales tax receipts within the 2021 fiscal 12 months. The minimal misplaced income fails to have in mind the possibly constructive financial influence of placing extra money within the pockets of ladies who need to commonly buy these things. It’s estimated that over the course of her lifetime, the common American girl will expertise 450 intervals and pay between $100 and $225 in gross sales taxes.
We assist the spirit of Punjwani’s protest. The comptroller ought to rule that tampons qualify as wound care objects worthy of a tax refund. Better but, lawmakers ought to finish the tampon tax in the course of the 2023 legislative session, when Howard plans to file her invoice once more.
It may properly take a lawsuit, such because the one filed in Michigan, to get the Legislature to take this problem significantly, however it shouldn’t need to.
Let’s be sincere. It’s probably not concerning the cash. It’s a few easy lack of curiosity by these in energy, largely males who aren’t affected by the tax and might’t be bothered to care. It’s excessive time that modified.