Vat

I'm with Iam64 - double mega tampons and two STs and still it was like Noah's flood - goodbye uterus at age 42 - hooray! Think of all the money I saved. The idea that they are a luxury is crazy!

Gillybob, it's only 5% on tampons.

gillybob, all I can say in response to your post is "LUXURY' - I could go through a box of super strength, along with those pads you could wear when jumping out of aeroplanes, in a day. On more than one occasion when wearing both these items, I'd got 30 minutes on the drive into work when I had to turn round to come home, shower, change all lower items of clothing and "do something" about the car seat and any coat I may have been foolish enough to wear.
Eventually, I was listed for a hysterectomy but given 3 months of hormone tablets to put me on (so to speak) The hormone treatment sorted the extremes so I didn't have a hysterectomy but I still had to be very careful about the best quality protection for several years. Plus, it often went on for months, with a brief break of a week or so mid nightmare. I wouldn't want to go back there for a gold clock

Sorry I didn't know it had already been covered.
It's still a disgrace.

Some of our products like food or books are zero rated. So why not tampons?

This argument has been going on for quite some time Igranma.

One discussion I heard on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 program last week really hit home when the caller asked how a Jaffa cake can be deemed to be "essential/non luxury " and not attract any VAT and a Tampon be deemed a luxury and be subject to full VAT. Its unbelievable.

Having said that I did a quick calculation and worked out that I would use 1 large box of tampons per period.

I only ever use/used supermarket own brand.

Cost of box = 1.35 (Asda own brand)
Vat within this .22p

Therefore VAT spent on tampons per year = £2.64

Hardly breaking the bank is is?

Cost over a (my) lifetime of periods (15-54 hopefully as I am 53 and still having occasional periods) £102.96 (probably quite a bit less as based whole lifetime on todays prices).

Same goes for not being able to claim VAT back on the building costs for a granny annexe.

It seems accommodation for elderly members of the family is lumped together with swimming pools and stables!

I've had a letter from David Gauke, financial secretary to the treasury, stating, 'Although long-standing formal agreements with our European partners allow us to keep zero rates as they currently stand, they do not allow us to extend them or introduce new ones. There is, therefore, no prospect of the law being amended on this point.'

Nice of him to thank me for taking the trouble to make them aware of my concerns but not much help in the long run.

I think it's disgraceful that Viagra is zero rated.

Apparently other EU countries still have a much higher rate on them.

Jaffa cakes incur no VAT - so there's one solution!

It's all bonkers!

These are a necessity of life and shouldn't incur any tax at all! At least all politicians do agree this which is something, but how to achieve it within the constraints of the EU is another matter! Watch this space I suppose!

We are up in arms and I have signed a petition about this - and talked on email with my MP. It seems that all sides of the house in general agree that VAT should be scrapped on sanitary products, but that they are in a tangle with EU regs. Apparently we cannot just choose which products we have or do not have VAT on but have to go through the EU. The lowest rate that can be set without EU approval is 5% and that is what it is at present.

"The recent vote in the House of Commons on this issue was divided between those who wanted to tie the Government to a three month negotiation exercise with the EU on this issue, and those who wanted to give flexibility to the Government to negotiate as part of its wider EU renegotiation strategy. Both sides supported the desire to reduce the VAT rate on sanitary products to zero, but disagreed as to how to achieve it." (from MP's email)

Personally I would have voted for the 3 month option, but even this would not guarantee success. Mad isn't it?

I wonder what would happen if we just did it? Would the world still keep turning?