{"id":10536,"date":"2021-03-10T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/?post_type=question&p=10536"},"modified":"2022-03-07T18:41:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T18:41:32","slug":"will-scrapping-the-tampon-tax-help-to-reduce-period-poverty","status":"publish","type":"question","link":"https:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/test\/will-scrapping-the-tampon-tax-help-to-reduce-period-poverty","title":{"rendered":"Will scrapping the tampon tax help to reduce period poverty?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The start of January 2021 saw the abolition of the 5% \u2018tampon tax\u2019 in the UK \u2013 that is, the reduced rate of value-added tax (VAT) on many period products. Tampons, pads and alternatives, including the mooncup, are now tax-free, although other reusable products such as period pants remain taxed at 17.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move was strongly welcomed by many campaigners who saw it as a stand against sexism in the tax system. The UK joined several countries \u2013 including Australia, Canada, Colombia, India, Kenya and Rwanda \u2013 with tax-free tampons and pads. The European Union is set to follow in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The size of the tax reduction<\/a> \u2013 and hence its potential impact on affordability \u2013 is small. Equally, there is no evidence that women are enjoying the benefit of any price reduction. In fact, the average price of a pack of 20 tampons increased<\/em> from \u00a32.06 in December 2020 to \u00a32.08 in January 2021 \u2013 see Figure 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This contrasts with what happened 20 years ago when VAT on these products was lowered from 17.5% to 5%. Then, the average price fell immediately from \u00a31.52 in December 2000 to \u00a31.45 in January 2001 \u2013 although the 9% price reduction in 2001 compared with 2000 suggests that retailers did not pass on all of the tax reduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figure 1: Tampon prices at the time of VAT changes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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