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We did it!

Thank you to everyone who supported our campaign to Say Pants to the Tax - thanks to you, the Chancellor has agreed to remove VAT from period pants! 

Our Campaign

In partnership with WUKA and with the support of politicians, charities, business leaders, and likeminded brands, we’re calling on the Government to remove the VAT that currently applies to period pants.

In 2021, the Government made the decision to abolish the ‘Tampon Tax’. This meant that period products like pads and tampons stopped incurring VAT. But the current VAT rules mean that period pants are classified as garments and therefore taxed at 20 per cent. We don’t think this is very fair and, together with our partners, we want to change this.  

Block pink colour background with the text Say Pants to the Tax Open Letter

Open letter to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury

We’ve written to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury to ask her to level the playing field.

Read here

If the Government removes the VAT and reclassifies period pants as period products, we can make them more affordable. We have pledged to pass the entirety of the saving – and more - onto our customers. For example, a three pack of period pants at £20 will become £16. That’s a saving of £4.  

Campaign timeline 

10 August: Campaign launched with over 50 supporters from retail, NGOs and politics
11 August: Public petition backing the campaign surpasses 10,000 signatures in 24 hours!
17 August: More retailers and charities join the campaign
23 August: M&S starts covering the cost of its period knickers - to make it fairer for customers as soon as possible
25 August: Government responds to the petition to say it will keep the tax "under review"
15 September: UK's top 5 knicker retailers come together to back the campaign
25 October: Binky Felstead joined M&S, MPs and Wellbeing of Women to deliver a letter supporting the campaign signed by over 70 retailers, period pants brands, NGOs and politicians to Downing Street
15 November: The campaign team headed to Parliament to meet MPs and peers and ask them to ask the Chancellor to remove VAT from period knickers
20 November: 'It's a bum deal, Jeremy': Say Pants to the Tax hit the road to cheekily remind the Chancellor to use his Autumn Statement to remove VAT
21 November: We did it, we levelled the playing field across period products by making period pants VAT free