UK government finally, FINALLY scraps the tampon tax

The day has finally come. The UK government has announced in the 2020 Budget that the contentious "tampon tax" will be scrapped at long last.

Currently, tampons, sanitary pads, and menstrual cups are categorised as "non-essential, luxury goods" and have 5 percent VAT (value-added tax) added to their price.

On Wednesday, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced in the 2020 Budget that the levy will be ditched when the UK's Brexit transition period ends on Dec. 31, 2020.

So, what does that mean for people who purchase period products regularly. Well, per the Guardian, the tax cut amounts to "7p off a pack of 20 tampons and 5p off a pack of 12 pads." That equates to a saving of £40 over your lifetime, according to the news outlet.

This victory comes after a hard-fought and politically-charged battle. For the past 20 years, campaigners have been lobbying MPs to ditch the tax. Two decades ago, Labour MP Dawn Primarolo successfully campaigned to get the VAT on sanitary items cut from 17.5 percent to 5 percent. In 2014, feminist campaigner Laura Coryton launched a Change.org petition after discovering that items like Jaffa cakes, crocodile steaks, private jet maintenance, and even edible sugar flowers aren't classed by HMRC as luxury items under VAT rules. Her petition gained over 300,000 signatures. "It is so exciting to hear that tampon tax will finally be axed!" Coryton told Mashable on Wednesday. "This is one step towards ending period shame, fighting period poverty and securing a more female-focused political agenda."

A sign from the 2019 Women's March in London. Credit: Guy Bell/Shutterstock

In 2015, the tampon tax became an unlikely pawn in the fraught debate over whether the UK should remain in the European Union. Under the EU's VAT Directive, the the UK government was prevented from reducing the tax rate on sanitary items beyond 5 percent. As long as the UK remained in the EU, it could only reduce the tampon tax to the lowest possible rate allowed under EU law. Conservative Eurosceptic politicians co-opted the issue, and far-right party UKIP even pledged to scrap the tax in a bid to push their EU-exiting agenda in the run-up to the 2015 General Election.

In Nov. 2015, then-Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to use the £15 million ($22.6 million) raised from the tampon tax to support women’s charities in the UK. In March 2016, then-Prime Minister David Cameron secured a deal with the EU to scrap the tampon tax. Despite the UK leaving the EU on Jan. 31, 2020, the tampon tax still remained because we are still in the Brexit transition period, which means "current rules on trade, travel, and business for the UK and EU will continue to apply" until Jan. 1, 2021. Per Coryton's petition, "Brexit complications" meant that the "amendment will be implemented by 2022 at the very latest."

Coryton caveated that the end of this tax was "a legal obligation put in place by a different government in 2016."

"If this government really wants to show its commitment to securing gender equality, we ask for the Tampon Tax Fund, which gives £15m a year (the revenue the government makes from tampon tax) to female focused charities, to be kept after the tax is axed," said Coryton. "If nothing else, this should be instated as a form of back payment for the 48 years we've been paying tampon tax!"

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Sam Smethers, Fawcett Society chief executive, told Mashable she welcomed the end of the controversial tax. "It is good to see the tampon tax finally removed, thanks to the work of period poverty campaigners Now manufacturers need to pass the saving on to the women and girls who rely on these products."

The zero rate will come into effect on Jan. 1, 2021.

Hey, it only took 48 years of paying it, and two decades of campaigning to get there.