By Xander Landen/VTDigger
The Vermont Senate voted unanimously Friday, Feb. 26 to exempt menstrual products from the state sales tax.
The bill, S.53, would remove the tax on products including tampons, panty liners, menstrual cups, which are currently subject to Vermont’s 6% sales tax, and an additional 1% local option tax in some communities.
The bill now moves to the House.
Vermont and Maine are the only nearby states that currently tax menstrual products, according to Sen. Chris Pearson, P/D-Chittenden, a sponsor of the legislation.
Pearson said when looking at items that are taxed and those that aren’t, “it becomes clear that gender equity leaps out when we’re talking about menstrual products,” Pearson said. “That’s what we’re correcting today.”
Sen. Ruth Hardy, D-Addison, who also sponsored the bill, urged senators to support the legislation as “a means toward gender equity.”
“As we all know, women in Vermont, on average, make 87 cents to the dollar that men make and yet we are charged taxation for buying products that are required for our use because of our biology,” Hardy said.
