Being a person that’s interested in the facts (god damn it), I decided to look into the accuracy of the meme and the impact of VAT on women's sanity (oops, I mean sanitary) products. Now, I’m not suggesting there aren’t any issues with the amount of VAT on products in general. In fact, the way VAT is added to some products and exempt from others is very confusing and makes little sense when you look at it, but for the purposes of this small study I will be looking at the following three issues.
1. The accuracy of the meme.
2. VAT comparison with other, similar products.
3. The actual financial impact of VAT on women's sanitary products.
1. The meme states that men's razors are taxed as a necessity and women's sanitary products as a luxury. The first issue is that the meme doesn’t give any specific VAT percentages. So what are men's razors and women's sanitary products taxed at? This information is easy to obtain by either looking at the government VAT website, or by simply buying the product yourself and calculating the VAT from the receipt (seriously, it's no fucking sercret). Well, it turns out that VAT on men's razors are at the standard rate of 20% and VAT on women's sanitary products are at a reduced rate of 5%. Straight away you can see that the meme is misleading and not a reflection of the facts. God damn it; it's a lie.
2. Now that we’ve established that VAT on women's sanitary products is at a hugely reduced rate of 5%, how does that compare with other, similar products? Toilet roll, toothpaste and soap are all charged at the standard VAT rate of 20%. It could be argued that these products are just as, if not more of a necessity in modern society. The three previously mentioned products are all used on a daily basis by EVERYONE yet are charged at the standard VAT rate of 20%. Surely this is a much bigger issue? Paying tax to wipe your fucking arse? The cheek if it (ba dum tss). Personally I’d be happy if woman's sanitary products, toilet roll, toothpaste and soap were all VAT free. But with all that in mind, it seems like the VAT on women's sanitary products is actually a good deal when compared with similar products.
3. So, what is the actual financial impact of VAT on sanitary products for women? Now, I’m not a women so my figures are not from experience but come from sources I found in my research. I’m happy to concede any inaccuracies in my figures if challenged with sources. Generally women will be going through menstrual cycles for approximately 40 years and at a 28 day average for each menstral cycle that's 13 per year or 520 in a lifetime. Approximately 20 sanitary products would be required for each cycle, equating to 10,400 products per lifetime. A pack of 20 can easily be purchased for £3.00, at a lifetime cost of £1560.00 (Inc VAT).
You can backwards calculate the VAT as follows:
£1560.00 (Inc VAT) divide by 105, times by 100 = £1485.71 (Ex VAT)
£1560.00 - £1485.71 = £74.29 VAT. That's over a lifetime and will work out at £1.86 in VAT per year. Let me repeat that, £1.86 IN VAT PER FUCKING YEAR.
Just to make the whole campaign seem a little more trivial, if you're really cheap you can buy 20 tampons for £1.70 in Tesco (and probably even cheaper in Aldi), giving a VAT cost of a whopping, wait for it, £1.05 per year.
In conclusion, the meme is a total lie, but that doesn't mean that the campaign to get VAT free sanitary products isn't a worthy one. But really, how much time and energy do you want to spend on a campaign to save you less than £2.00 a year? If you look, you might find more than that down the back of your sofa. Finally, just to pre-empt the argument that it's not fair that women should pay it when men don't. Well, what can I say? Biology is sexist. You can blame evolution, or if you're so inclined, you can blame god. But, one thing's for sure; biology is nobody else's fault.
So suck it up buttercup.
Sources
VAT on razors
VAT on women's sanitary products
Starting age of menstruation
Average age of menopause
