18 States Still Tax Tampons and Pads. North Carolina Could Be the Next to Stop.
Most states exempt groceries from sales tax. Most states exempt prescription drugs. Most states exempt medical devices.
Most states still tax tampons.
As of July 1, 2026, 18 states charge their standard sales tax rate on menstrual products — including pads, tampons, menstrual cups, and panty liners. In Indiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee, that rate runs as high as 7%. In states like Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia, menstrual products are taxed the same way as electronics, furniture, and luxury goods.
The movement to end what advocates call the "tampon tax" has been building for a decade. 32 states now specifically exempt menstrual products or have no statewide sales tax at all. But 18 states haven't moved — and the compliance picture for retailers selling these products across state lines is genuinely complicated.
Where Every State Stands Right Now
The national picture as of July 2026 is a patchwork of exemptions and taxable states with no obvious regional pattern.
States that do NOT tax menstrual products — either through a specific exemption or because they have no statewide sales tax — include Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. The five no-sales-tax states — Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon — also effectively exempt these products, though Alaska's local jurisdictions may apply their own taxes.
States that still tax menstrual products as taxable personal property include Indiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Arizona. The Alliance for Period Supplies' tampon tax tracker confirms 18 states are still charging sales tax on period products as of July 2026.
The rates in taxable states range from 4% to over 9% when local taxes are added — meaning a woman buying a box of tampons in Tennessee pays nearly 10 cents in combined sales tax on every dollar spent. On a year's worth of menstrual products, that adds up to a real and recurring cost that exemption advocates argue is fundamentally unfair.
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North Carolina — The Next State Likely to Move
North Carolina has multiple bills actively moving through its legislature right now — any of which could eliminate the state's tampon tax.
As Avalara's analysis of North Carolina's menstrual product exemption bills confirmed, there are at least four bills in play. House Bill 1165 would exempt qualifying menstruation products from state sales tax effective July 1, 2026 — but includes an unusual condition requiring that the products contain no intentionally added PFAS chemicals. House Bill 1079 and House Bill 1200 and Senate Bill 1029 would all establish a sales tax exemption for menstrual products effective October 1, 2026 — without the PFAS condition.
The definition of qualifying products in the October 1 bills covers menstrual cups, panty liners, sanitary napkins, tampons, and other similar tangible personal property designed for feminine hygiene in connection with the human menstrual cycle.
For retailers selling menstrual products in North Carolina — whether from a physical store or shipping to North Carolina addresses — the status of these bills matters. If any of them pass before October 1, products that are currently taxable in North Carolina become exempt. Retailers who don't update their systems for an October 1 effective date would over-collect from customers.
The Period Underwear Complication
Even in states with existing menstrual product exemptions, there's a compliance question most retailers miss — period underwear.
As LegalClarity's 2026 analysis of tampon taxes noted, newer products like period underwear generally fall outside most exemption statutes because they are not explicitly named. Unless a state's law uses broad catch-all language — such as "other similar tangible personal property designed for feminine hygiene in connection with the menstrual cycle" — period underwear is likely still taxed even in an exempt state.
This distinction matters for retailers selling period underwear specifically. A brand selling tampons and period underwear in the same state may have different tax treatment for the two products. In states where the exemption uses narrow language limited to named products — California, for example, limits its exemption to specific product types by name — period underwear remains taxable even though tampons are not.
Retailers should verify the specific language of each state's exemption — not just whether the state has a general menstrual product exemption — before applying the exempt treatment to period underwear. The answer is different by state, sometimes by product type within a state, and sometimes by how the product is described or marketed.
Why This Matters for Multi-State Retailers
For retailers selling menstrual products across multiple states — whether through a physical retail chain, an ecommerce platform, or a subscription service — the patchwork of state exemptions creates real compliance complexity.
A product taxable in Indiana is exempt in Illinois. A product that qualifies for Tennessee's taxable rate doesn't qualify for the exemption in neighboring Kentucky. Period underwear that's exempt in New York may be taxable in New Jersey depending on how the product is classified under each state's specific language.
The taxability determination isn't just "does this state have a tampon tax exemption" — it's a product-level analysis that requires knowing the specific language of each state's statute and how each state's department of revenue has interpreted it for products like menstrual discs, reusable pads, and period underwear that may or may not fit the original exemption definitions.
For subscription services shipping a monthly box of menstrual products to subscribers across the country, this means running a different taxability analysis for each state where they have customers — and updating that analysis whenever a state like North Carolina changes its rules.
What's Driving the Movement
The argument for eliminating the tampon tax has two prongs — fairness and classification.
The fairness argument: states that exempt groceries because food is a basic necessity apply the same logic inconsistently when they tax menstrual products. Period products are a physiological necessity for roughly half the population for several decades of their lives. Taxing them while exempting food creates an inequity that falls entirely on people who menstruate.
The classification argument: many states already exempt medical devices and health products from sales tax. Advocates argue menstrual products should be classified the same way — as health necessities rather than luxury goods — making the legislative path to exemption straightforward within existing frameworks.
The movement has been remarkably successful over the past decade. Starting around 2016, the number of states exempting menstrual products has roughly doubled. The 18 states still taxing them in 2026 are the holdouts in what has become a broader national consensus that these products shouldn't be taxed.
What Retailers Should Do Right Now
If you sell menstrual products — tampons, pads, menstrual cups, period underwear, or similar items — across multiple states, here's the compliance action list.
Run a product-level taxability review for every state where you sell. Don't assume a state's general "menstrual products exempt" classification covers every product in your catalog. Verify the specific statutory language for period underwear specifically.
Monitor North Carolina closely. If any of the active bills pass — particularly the October 1 bills — you need to update your North Carolina taxability for qualifying products immediately. Retailers that continue collecting North Carolina sales tax on newly exempt products are over-collecting from customers.
Set up a monitoring process for the 18 remaining taxable states. The pace of change has been accelerating — states that have been taxing these products for years are eliminating the tax with increasing frequency. A compliance setup that's correct today may need updating when the next state acts.
Verify your period underwear classification separately in every state where you sell it. This is the category most likely to be incorrectly treated as exempt in states where the exemption doesn't explicitly cover it.
Not sure whether your menstrual product taxability is correctly configured across all the states where you sell — or trying to track North Carolina's moving legislation before it affects your compliance? Book a free consultation with our team at sales.tax. We'll review your product taxability state by state and make sure your compliance reflects the current exemption landscape.
What this means for your business
If your sales into North Carolina have grown with prices, you may have crossed the economic nexus threshold without changing anything about how you sell. We’ll tell you where you stand in 30 minutes — and if there’s nothing to fix, we’ll say so.