The Effectiveness of Tax Incentive Policies to combat Period Poverty as a Criterion for their Validity

the Codification of the Need for Cost-benefit and Impact Analysis in Promoting Gender Equality, through §§ 10 and 11 of Article 9 of Constitutional Amendment 132/2023, which approved the Tax Reform on Consumption in Brazil

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the constitutionality of tax rules that exempt tampons, as they are “extrafiscal” tax rules which aim to make the product’s prices lower and thus guarantee access to it, combating menstrual poverty. This study has its basis on the recognition of the constitutional principle of inequality reduction as a parameter for public policy, including tax policy. In this sense, it parts from the premise that tax rules which exempt tampons from ICMS (the Brazilian value added tax) are “extrafiscal” rules (rules to induce taxpayer’s behavior) and from economic papers which demonstrate the ineffectiveness of exemptive tax policies in regards to the impact on the exempted product’s prices and, thus, the probable inefficiency of this tax policy in achieving its extrafiscal end of democratizing the access of feminine hygiene items, through theoretical legal methodology and hypothetical­-deductive methods, with bibliographical research.