The tampon tax is going

[nosswith]

Probably the only good thing about leaving the EU, but let's be happy about it.

Yes, they agreed a "deal" in 2016, which was due to come into force in 2022, so we couldn't have removed it before now.
I'm curious as to how Ireland have done.

Ok I just checked dds packet it says made in Slovakia

So what will brexit mean for standards and importing of these products?

[quote Neversleepingever]@Veterinari EU law requires members to tax tampons and sanitary towels at 5% if that's not an EU issue, I don't know what is.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55502252[/quote]
@Neversleepingever

Not since 2016!

This is just more UK gov propaganda

They've been needlessly taxing us for nearly 5 years and are announcing thus now as a desperate 'benefit' of BREXIT. It isn't

qz.com/642811/the-eu-will-finally-allow-member-states-to-scrap-their-tampon-tax/

The tax was only reduced to 5% after years of tireless campaigning, and the money was originally supposed to go to women's frontline services but ended up going to charities such as Life.
I'm glad to see the back of it.

Regardless of who's made the decision.

If the only benefit to Bexit is saving us all £40 over our lifetimes, and that is already offset by reduced GDP, and reduced oversight of maternity and other women's legislative protections, I'll probably not bother to celebrate too wildly

Good. Now the revenue it raised can no longer be used for pushing anti-women ideology.

My understanding of this is fairly similar to Veterinari’s.
Historically when the UK joined the EEC in 1971, it had to declare which products were taxable or not and the “nots” couldn’t be changed don’t ask me about zero-rated/exempt because I can’t remember and sanitary products were classed as a luxury and thus liable to VAT.
Labour reduced the rate from standard to 5% in 2000 because that was the lowest it could go at the time without getting agreement from the rest of the EU as well.
Conservatives announced that revenue from sanitary products would go to women’s charities in 2015 and then in 2016 Cameron got the rest of the EU to agree to change the classification by 2022.
If the EU ref vote hadn’t gone to Leave, there would probably have been enough time in the EU Parliament etc to get it changed by now - time that has obviously been eaten up by Brexit.
So Brexit is a Pyrrhic victory as far as tampon tax goes, because as @Veterinari says the costs of Brexit far outweigh the savings of 5%.
Also, the allocation of the 5% tax revenue was a completely internal to the UK decision, both in terms of whether it should be allocated to women’s charities and which ones.
Ireland made different decisions about the tax treatment of sanitary products somewhere along the way that it was entitled to keep and so wasn’t affected by the EU’s VAT directive.

Quite interesting to see Women’s Sanitary Products is the term used in the official guidance too

EU law requires members to tax tampons and sanitary towels at 5% if that's not an EU issue, I don't know what is.

EU law requires members to tax basically everything at 5%. 5% is the minimum VAT level.

Tampons and sanitary towels aren't penalised by the EU - they just don't have an exemption from standard VAT rules. In many countries they get the same minimum 5% as other necessities like food.

The UK had a historic pre-EU legacy 0% rate for certain items (most non-luxury food and books, mainly), which the EU rules permitted to be retained for those items, but tampons were never part of that 0% rate. And lowering any item to less than 5% is not permitted.

Basically, UK women were getting a much better VAT deal than most of the rest of the EU. Their food was taxed at 0% and their tampons at 5%. In the rest of the EU both food and tampons would be 5% (or more). And food expenditure is much higher than tampon expenditure.

Like Maya Forstater, I'm very cynical about the "period poverty" thing. Scrapping the very-low VAT level on tampons will have no real effect - hence corporate and TRA enthusiasm for it as a "yay we're feminists!" signalling device. (Recall that 19-year-old Labour fool who's name I've mercifully forgotten "campaigning" on it).

She recently said something on twitter how all these things like "period poverty" and "hygiene poverty" are basically distraction devices to stop you looking at the fundamental issue - poverty.

As others have said it was originally the full rate so 20% or so depending on the rate at the time. For an item that has never been a luxury.

It might be more symbolic than cost saving now but it is still right to remove it.

The original campaign was about the symbolism ie that the EU said women's sanitory products were luxury items.

The campaign got a lot of support and the UK Government said they would reduce VAT to 5% which is the minimum the EU allows.

So women's sector groups campaign that that 5% should be set aside as a fund for women's groups. But needless to say in the early days most money went to large organisation on a "women's project". It never really filtered down although after a lot of campaigns then then allocates a small amount to a 2nd tier women's group to distribute to small groups. ie the administration of this that could have been taken on by the Government will come out of the grant.

But as said up thread, no way will the Government come up with alternative funding. And anyway they only give it to large groups so it is always as an add on.

It is never used for what it really needed - core funding. Without core funding women's groups are in perpetual stop start mode. wasting money on expensive job ads, interviewing, inducting, and then in no time at all contracts come to an end.

See www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4097390-Latest-and-probably-last-Tampon-Tax-allocations

And earlier threads about Tampon Tax www.mumsnet.com/SearchArch?mustmatch=tampon+tax&dontmatch=&nickname=&src_displ_option=s_t_d_t&fromDate=&toDate=&topicmode=chs&chosentops=5365