BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana women and families won’t have to pay sales taxes on diapers, tampons and other feminine hygiene products, under a bill signed into law by Gov. John Bel Edwards.
But they’ll have to wait a while for the tax break. To give the state time to plan for the estimated $11 million in lost yearly tax collections, lawmakers set the tax exemption to start in July 2022.
The Legislature passed the bill by Rep. Aimee Freeman, a New Orleans Democrat, in the regular session that ended earlier this month. Senators voted 33-1 for the tax break, while lawmakers in the House approved the final deal in a narrower 63-36 vote. Passage of the bill as came as part of a broader tax package backed by lawmakers in the final days of the session.
The measure will exempt diapers for children and adults and all types of feminine hygiene products from the 4.45% state sales tax and from any local sales taxes traditionally charged on those items. Women and families in the state buy about $249 million of those products each year, according to a nonpartisan financial estimate of the legislation.
The tax break will put the essential items in line with prescription drugs, which already are exempt from sales taxes.