A woman browses items for sale beside a shelf of condoms (R) at a supermarket in Beijing on April 24, 2013. Wang Zhao /AFP via Getty Images
China will start taxing condoms and other contraceptives for the first time in three decades, as it searches for ways to lift one of the world’s lowest birth rates.
Under a revised Value-Added Tax (VAT) Law passed at the end of 2024, condoms and oral contraceptives will lose their tax-exempt status and be subject to up to 13 percent VAT starting Jan. 1, 2026.
