Posted on 03/28/2010 4:28:51 AM PDT by tobyhill
A bunch of worthless politicians who have never run a business; are lecturing these companies.
Priceless..
Actually, they will still provide the subsidy (I think it was about $669 a year, vs an expected 1200 a year it would cost the goverment).
But it used to be tax-free, and now it would be taxed. So for a company that doesn’t make money, it wouldn’t cost anything, but a profitable company would have to pay back money in taxes (stupid government, giving money out and then taxing it, instead of just reducing payments — like with taxing the social security payments.
So companies that are carrying the tax credits now and have lost them are having to report that as increased costs.
But claiming it was a “tax loophole” makes it sound like they were benefitting unfairly, and that it is a good thing to change.
In fact, the government wanted to pay companies to NOT drop their retirees into the government health care program. So they came up with a plan that cost less than half of what it would cost to provide the medicare benefit.
They paid companies in TWO ways. First, there was the direct payment of subsidies, and Second, they gave a tax break. The “tax break” isn’t money they had to allocate, so it shows up differently in the budget, but both went into a company’s decision to keep prescription drug payments for their retirees.
Now they have eliminated the tax credit on the money they receive to pay for prescriptions. So they have to change their earnings to reflect the extra taxes due. And it will likely cause some to drop their programs.
Just to take a contrary position — right now, the firms offer health care even though they don’t get any penalty for not doing so — they do it to keep their employees.
Why do you think they would drop the insurance when it costs money to do so?
You’re wrong. They get the subsidy (without paying taxes on it) and they get the tax benefit of writing off those expenses. The write off is what is being eliminated, not the tax free subsidy.
I wonder how much John Kerry’s wife’s company Heinz will report in losses?
That’s what I said. They still get the subsidy, but it’s no longer tax-free.
Thank you for explaining this. Interesting how ‘meia’ didn’t respond to you, but stayed on message with the liberal talking points.
Breaking: Boeing to Recognize Charge Associated With Health Care Law ($150M!)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2483847/posts
That is a mighty nice company you have there, be a shame if somethin’ were to happen to it...
List of companies announcing charges (as far as I’ve been able to compile:)
ATT 1 billion
Caterpillar 100 million
Deere & Co. 150 million
AK Steel 31 million
3M 90 million
Valero Energy 20 million
Prudential 100 million
Allegheny Tech 5 million
ITW 22 million
Boeing 150 million
that’s something around 1.67 billion...
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