Drugs groups face increase in tax rates
Health / Medicine Related News
PwC says rising public sector deficits and a shift in the strategy of pharmaceutical companies will intensify countries' efforts to clamp down on methods used to keep taxes low
Source: FT.com - Pharmaceuticals
I think they will have to keep them low.
You can't really deny people the medication they need to exist. One way or the other they are going to get it. Either by Canada or some other illegal action.
This is one of those topics for me that really bugs me because the U.S. Is spending so much money on bail outs and war, but then when it comes to the well being of its citizens they seem to be saying, do the best you can guys, sorry.
Meanwhile the bankers that brought the economy to its knees are on vacation in some ungodly beautiful place sipping margaritas with thier personal jets at the ready, tanks full of gas.
Give us a break already, what does it have to come to?
How many people have to be crying out for something like this before its heard? It seems like the government is ignoring the citizens with a grin and a fat wallet. I'm really sickened by this.
Drug companies take the greatest risks in an economic and business sense of any type of business. They invest billions of $$ in a drug, and only a small percentage of experimental drugs are viable in the long run.
However, the profit margins on successful drugs are incredible. Drug companies end up with incredible profits. So, they become prime targets for governments to rape and pillage through taxes. That is why the proposed health care reforms in the US include even more billions of taxes on pharmaceuticals, and why other socialist countries such as Britain like to continually increase taxes on them.
The real problem is that the governments purposely ignore who the owners of the pharmaceuticals really are. Most of the stock owners in successful companies are mutual funds and retirement funds. In other words, government and union employees are major beneficiaries of the incredible profits that the governments then want to tax.
As usual, these moves towards excessive taxation have consequences far beyond the supposed benefits. As others have pointed out, they also raise the cost of medical care.