A group of five women filed a class action lawsuit today against the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, claiming that the state's 4% sales tax on tampons and other feminine hygiene products—but not "medical" items like Rogaine, adult diapers and dandruff shampoo—violates the Equal Protection clauses of the United States and New York State Constitutions. In addition to seeking a permanent tax exemption for feminine hygiene products, the lawsuit demands a full tax refund for all women who have purchased tampons or pads in New York over the last two years.
"This is one of many laws made by men and for men," said attorney Zoe Salzman on Thursday. "If men menstruated once a month, there is no way there would be a sales tax on these products."
For context, women who don't prefer DivaCups spend about $61.11 per year on tampons, an annual expenditure that might be on par with your monthly utility costs, but still adds up over 40ish years of fertility. For the plaintiffs in this case, the savings aren't insignificant. "I have witnessed young women counting every penny," said plaintiff Natalie Brasington.
Joseph Henchman (Henchman!), a policy expert for the Tax Foundation, a conservative think tank, recently argued to the NY Times that tampons and other necessary goods are a reliable source of tax revenue during times of economic downturn, because women purchase them no matter what—arguably, from a humanist perspective, a pretty good reason not to tax them.
It's also the principal of the thing. New York State exempts medical items from its sales tax, but excludes pads and tampons from the "medical" classification. According to the Department of Taxation's guide for retailers [PDF], feminine hygiene products are "generally used to control a normal bodily function and to maintain personal cleanliness." This differentiates them in the fine print from over-the-counter medication for a "vaginal infection," which treats a "specific medical condition."
The plaintiffs counter that pads and tampons are necessary for the preservation of health, especially compared to, say, chapstick for a coldsore.
Manhattan Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal and Senator Sue Serino of Dutchess County agree—last month they introduced legislation that would exempt feminine hygiene products like tampons and pads from state sales tax, calling the tax "a regressive tax on women and their bodies that harkens back to a time when the laws were written by men for women."
And Queens Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras would take it a step further. Since last summer, she's been spearheading legislation that would provide free tampons to teenage girls, distributed to practical spots like high school bathrooms. The law is still winding its way through the Council, but at least one Queens high school has since installed a free tampon dispenser.
Speaking at a press conference for the plaintiffs on Thursday, activist Jennifer Weiss-Wolf said she hoped that the lawsuit could potentially prove more expedient than city and state legislation. In January, she pointed out, an all-male Tax Committee in Utah voted to maintain the tampon tax. "It's terrific that the legislature is looking at this," she said. "But politics is politics."
The State tax department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the suit.
