A growing number of consumers will be able to get a refund on their state’s sales tax on menstrual products, which critics have dubbed the “tampon tax.”
Eight period product companies—August, Cora, Lola, the Honey Pot, Rael, Here We Flo, Saalt, and Diva—rolled out an initiative on October 11 to help make menstrual products more accessible by reimbursing consumers in 20 states who paid the “tampon tax” on items like tampons, sanitary napkins, and menstrual cups and sponges.
“I want to take down the tampon tax,” Nadya Okamoto, cofounder of August, told Healthcare Brew. “The reimbursement is really just a vehicle [to] get people thinking about the tampon tax, and they’re incentivized to do so because they’re going to get money for it.”
As part of the reimbursement program, which is powered by the cashback rewards platform Aisle, consumers will text photos to the company of their receipts for period products from participating brands through third-party retailers such as Amazon or Target, and within 24 hours, they’ll receive a Venmo payment covering the sales tax they paid, Okamoto said.
August began reimbursing consumers who paid US sales taxes on their period products bought through other retailers earlier this year, and the company wanted to partner with other menstrual product companies with “bigger bases,” Okamoto said. For example, Diva, which manufactures the Diva Cup, says it sells more than a million of the menstrual cups worldwide each year.
States that impose a sales tax on period products categorize them as luxury goods. The tax can be as high as 7% depending on the state, according to the Alliance for Period Products, a national organization that aims to help people who menstruate get access to period supplies, and is in stark contrast to other over-the-counter health-related products that are often considered medically necessary and tax exempt, such as Rogaine, which is used to treat hair loss.
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“The tampon tax is an incremental tax on certain products,” Amy Fisher, CEO of reproductive care company Lola, told Healthcare Brew. “It’s actually referred to as the ‘pink tax.’ It’s across a bunch of categories: razors that are targeted towards women, period care, other products that are not seen as necessities that are—I don’t know how a tampon could not be seen as a necessity, but it’s in that category.”
Over the course of a lifetime, individuals who menstruate can spend at least $1,800 on period products, and using makeshift products as an alternative to costly period supplies can lead to conditions such as vaginal and urinary tract infections and toxic shock syndrome.
In September, Texas became the latest state to repeal its sales tax on menstrual products. Lola was “very involved in the campaign in Texas” aimed at eliminating the state’s tampon tax back in 2019, Fisher said.
Okamoto’s goal to make menstrual supplies more accessible doesn’t end with the tampon tax reimbursement program—she said she hopes to partner with hospitals to make period products free for patients and in bathrooms.