Senators Once Again Taking Up the DTC Tax Write-Off

Senator Claire McCaskill recently introduced legislation that would eliminate the ability of drug manufacturers to deduct the cost of advertising their products from taxes. Senate Bill 2478 attempts to amend the IRS code to “deny the deduction for advertising and promotional expense for prescription drugs,” and is co-sponsored by Senator Jeanne Shaheen. This is not the first time legislators have tried to stop pharmaceutical companies from deducting ad spending as a business expense the same way other companies do with their ad costs. In 2016, a group of four Democratic senators led by former Senator Al Franken introduced “Protecting Americans from Drug Marketing,” a piece of legislation that attempted to end the advertising and marketing tax deduction for pharma companies. The bill was sent to the Committee on Finance, but no other action was taken, so the bill died in committee. McCaskill said that this legislation stems from the service she has performed with Senator Susan Collins on the Senate Aging Committee, where the two Senators worked together to investigate the rising price of prescription drugs. During the investigation, the Senators found that drug companies spent more on sales and marketing of their drugs than they did on research and development. Following the introduction of the legislation, McCaskill released a statement. “Drug companies have too much influence in Washington,” McCaskill said. “So it figures we are one of the only nations in th...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs