The Hoya: DC Council Approves Eliminating Tampon Tax
media mention“The bill has nevertheless encountered opposition from various organizations within the District. Richard Phillips, senior policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-profit, nonpartisan think tank that focuses on state and tax policy issues, expressed concerns that the exemption would not be an efficient way to address some of the inherent issues surrounding sales taxes.
‘For a long time there has been this misconception that the sales tax is actually a luxury tax,’ Phillips said. ‘You shouldn’t have inequalities in what is and isn’t being subjected to the sales tax.’
Phillips also expressed concerns regarding implications of the tax exemption for other products.
‘If one year we exempt diapers, and the next year t-shirts, and shoes, then you have a problem where your sales tax base keeps getting eroded year after year, because you have different groups asking for exemptions,’ Phillips said. ‘Once you exempt all these different things, you create a real problem for the tax code overall.'”