SC could get rid of ‘tampon tax’ that charges extra for feminine hygiene products
South Carolina lawmakers could weigh next year whether to exempt tampons and other feminine hygiene products from the state’s 6% sales tax under a new proposal filed this month by a Berkeley County legislator.
Should it pass the Legislature, whose membership is majority male, the bill — H. 4717 — would exempt tampons, pads, and “other similar personal care items” used “with the menstrual cycle” from the state’s sales tax and other local taxes starting July 1.
Supporters of the bill say feminine hygiene products are necessary and, therefore, should not be taxed. Taxing them, they add, is sex-based discrimination and should be deemed unconstitutional.
But the proposal — filed last week by state Rep. Krystle Matthews, a Berkeley Democrat — would most certainly face a challenge in the state’s legislative chambers.
Expect lawmakers to say offering tax breaks for those products would cost the state millions of dollars in lost revenue. This comes up as lawmakers consider debating wholesale tax reform that could include a debate over whether to remove tax breaks for other products that cost the state more than $3.3 billion in lost revenue a year.
It was not clear by deadline how much money removing the sales tax from feminine hygiene products would cost the state.
But according to research from Period Equity — a group helping to spearhead a nationwide effort to get 33 states on board to remove taxes on pads, tampons and other products — the tampon tax costs S.C. people $3.8 million a year and nationwide $150 million a year.
As part of its Tampon Tax Protest Tour, Period Equity and LOLA plan to hold a protest Wednesday in Greenville.
“The tampon tax goes beyond being unfair and inequitable,” Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, co-founder of Period Equity and a campaign called “Tax Free. Period,” aimed at getting all states on board with removing sales tax from feminine hygiene purchases, said in an emailed statement. “It is a policy failure that has persisted for decades. ... Our goal is to end the tampon tax in the U.S. once and for all and to pave the way for future legal claims that support broader gender-equity reform,” Weiss-Wolf said.
Regardless of any legislative challenge, Matthews called the bill a “necessity” and argued these products should be treated like other any other medical supplies that are exempt from the state’s sales tax.
“Me, as a mother of five, two are girls, ... I’m starting to understand from the other perspective about period insecurity we have even in the Lowcountry,” said Matthews, who said she has been volunteering with The Homeless Period Project, which donates feminine hygiene products to places in need, including homeless shelters and schools. “I was moved (to file the bill) because I realized it was a necessity. It really is something we need to use. We can’t bleed through our clothing. We have to do this.”
Matthews is not the first S.C. legislator to suggest removing the so-called “tampon tax.”
Efforts in the past to repeal the state’s sales tax from tampons and pads have gone nowhere. A 2016 proposal from state Rep. Cezar Knight, D-Williamsburg, that would have provided feminine hygiene product dispensers in every women’s restroom in state buildings also failed.
“I don’t think that this is that extreme that the most conservative (lawmaker) couldn’t find a way to understand,” Matthews said. “But it comes down to whether they want to understand.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2019 at 11:01 AM.
