Utah
CVS Pharmacy announces it’s paying period product sales tax for Utah customers
CVS Pharmacy is paying the state gross sales tax on interval merchandise for purchasers at its 30 tales throughout Utah, the corporate introduced this week. (Wealthy Pedroncelli, Related Press)
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SALT LAKE CITY — CVS Pharmacy is paying the state gross sales tax on interval merchandise for purchasers at its 30 shops throughout Utah, the corporate introduced this week.
Utah is one among 22 states that tax interval merchandise at the usual gross sales tax price, contemplating them nonessential merchandise. Utah’s gross sales tax price is 6.1%, and with native tax charges various statewide, the typical mixed state and municipal tax price is 7.19%, in line with the Tax Basis.
As a part of CVS Well being’s deal with girls’s well being holistically, it’s specializing in combating interval poverty, mentioned Dr. Joanne Armstrong, vp and chief medical officer of ladies’s well being and genomics at CVS, throughout a web-based panel dialogue on Tuesday.
Intervals are one of many “most stigmatized” situations for girls, as many are embarrassed to debate it “and that influences how they present up in all these different locations,” she added.
For individuals who cannot afford interval merchandise — 1 in 5 — intervals are stigmatized even additional, in line with Armstrong.
She mentioned the corporate might be paying the tax in 12 states the place it’s ready to take action. CVS can be decreasing the worth of all its CVS model interval merchandise by 25%.
Armstrong mentioned the choice is a part of the corporate’s mission to eradicate gender-based pricing, including that “a pink razor is similar as a blue razor” — pointing to the historic worth discrepancy between razors made for males and people made for girls.
Previous efforts by leaders in Utah to repeal the tax on interval merchandise have failed.
The Utah Legislature authorised an finish to the so-called “tampon tax” as a part of a sweeping tax reform invoice throughout a particular session in late 2019. However inside a number of weeks, then-Gov. Gary Herbert, Senate President Stuart Adams and Home Speaker Brad Wilson determined to repeal the invoice, which was unpopular amongst many residents, in the course of the first week of the 2020 session.
Final yr, the Legislature unanimously handed a regulation requiring the set up of free interval product dispensers in each Ok-12 feminine and unisex rest room.