Meet the Texas teens taking on the state’s ‘tampon tax’

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A group of young women have teamed up with a prestigious Houston law firm to get the state to stop charging sales tax on menstrual products, arguing they qualify as “wound care dressings.”

, D-Austin, who has filed a bill to make menstrual supplies tax-exempt every session since 2017.

But she also knew there was very little chance the bill would pass, a sentiment she said some of the legislators conveyed very clearly. “When we started digging into sales tax … regulations promulgated by the comptroller, we saw that there was really this inequity going on in the tax treatment of menstrual products,” said Baker Botts associate Laura Shoemaker McGonagill.Baker Botts agreed to take the case pro bono, which is how they all ended up in the tampon aisle at a store in Houston, watching Punjwani buy menstrual products.

She also pointed out that over-the-counter male libido enhancers are tax-exempt under a separate regulation.“Just as a basic layperson looking at this, I think most people would say managing a monthly menstrual flow is much more important and medically necessary to yourself and to others, compared to libido enhancers,” Shoemaker McGonagill said.

“When I think back to what I was doing when I was 17 or 18, I was not advocating for change at a legislative level,” she said. “We’ve just been blown away by them from the very beginning. They’re very thoughtful. They have good insight. And I think they’re working really hard to remedy the situation through every avenue available to them.”Bellaire High School senior Zoe Kass demonstrates how students can reach her menstrual product baskets in the high school in Houston.

Kass is finishing up her senior year of high school, still stocking the bathrooms and, through her AP government class, learning a lot more about the process she has been participating in.“It’s just been funny, we’ve been talking about lobbyists and Supreme Court cases and the Ways and Means Committee, and it’s like, oh, I testified to them,” she said. “And now working with the lawyers to try to understand the tax code and all that.

Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)

 

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I mean, I'm not against it, taxation is theft. But the reasoning is hilarious

Fantastic idea. Women pay way too much for just being a women… and it’s not fare.

Lmfao 😂😆, don't y'all have a life, obviously not, suggestion, get one

Lol

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