At last! The tampon tax is finally going to be scrapped in January.
The chancellor will announce plans to abolish the 5% VAT that women currently pay on sanitary products in Monday's budget.
The Treasury says that scrapping the tax will save you an average of 7p on a pack of 20 tampons and 5p on a pack of 12 pads. It's estimated that the average women will save around £40 in her lifetime.
You can calculate how much the tampon tax has cost you so far here.
The decision was welcomed by Gemma Abbott from the Free Periods activism group, who told the BBC that the tampon tax had "no place in a society that seeks gender equality".
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
The tampon tax has existed in some form since 1973, when the UK became subject to EU regulations which required sanitary products to be taxed as "luxury items". Chancellor Rishi Sunak will formally announce next week that when the UK exits the EU at the end of this year, the tampon tax will be no more.
Since 2015, the highly controversial tax has been given to women's charities, but it hasn't always been distributed with due care and attention. In 2017, it emerged that a portion of the tampon tax was being awarded to an anti-abortion charity.
Tampon tax collected between now and the end of the year will continue to be distributed among women's charities. Gemma Abbott of Free Periods called on the government to "reaffirm their commitment to supporting [these] charities" even after the tax has ended.
In recent years some leading retailers have reduced their prices on sanitary products by 5% to essentially negate the tampon tax.
News that the tampon tax is being abolished comes after Scotland approved a world-first plan last month to make plans and tampons free for everyone.
And in January, the British government stepped up its commitment to ending period poverty in the UK by making sanitary products freely available in schools.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT