![\"pill\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s.wsj.net\/media\/placebo_art_257_20080304155738.jpg?w=780\")
The costs that corporations say they will have to pay because of the new health legislation continue to climb as Verizon Communications said it will post a one-time charge of $970 million in the first quarter.<\/p>\nThe costs that corporations say they will have to pay because of the new health legislation continue to climb as Verizon Communications said it will post a one-time charge of $970 million in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
The overhaul blocks companies from deducting tax-free subsidies they get from Washington for providing retirees with prescription-drug benefits. That change doesn’t kick in until 2013, but companies are taking the charges now in anticipation. <\/p>\n
That’s a bone of contention as the Obama administration officials have said companies are exaggerating the overhaul’s impact because they don’t like the new law. The charges are only a bookkeeping move and don’t require cash payouts by the companies, but corporate tax bills will eventually go up.<\/p>\n
First-quarter charges related to the retiree drug benefits for companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index could reach $4.5 billion and affect as many as 1,400 corporations, some analysts say. <\/p>\n
Companies with large groups of retirees will be affected most by the change. AT&T<\/a> last week announced a $1 billion charge; Verizon’s charge of $970 million is the second largest so far, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Others high on the list include, Deere & Co. ($150 million), Boeing ($150 million), Caterpillar ($100 million) and Prudential Financial ($100 million). <\/p>\n Since the Medicare Part D program was enacted in 2003, the federal government has been providing the tax-free payments to the companies as an incentive to maintain their drug-benefit programs. More on the charges is here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image: iStockphoto<\/em><\/p>\n The costs that corporations say they will have to pay because of the new health legislation continue to climb as Verizon Communications said it will post a one-time charge of $970 million in the first quarter. The overhaul blocks companies from deducting tax-free subsidies they get from Washington for providing retirees with prescription-drug benefits. That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":757,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-707556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-2Y4c","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/757"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
\n<\/img><\/a><\/p>\n
\n<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>
<\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"