A Walgreens in New York. (AP Photo/Yanina Manolova, file)
By Ameet Sachdev | Walgreens
reported Thursday that it will record an after-tax charge of $44 million, or 5 cent a share, in the third quarter after a tax benefit was repealed in the health-care reform legislation passed in March.
The company said it will no longer receive a tax benefit for a Medicare subsidy for retiree drug benefits. The loss of the tax benefit will increase the company’s annual taxable income by about $13 million.
Deerfield-based Walgreens also said an accounting change will reduce the dilutive impact of its Duane Reade acquisition from 10 cents a share to 5 cents a share. For the third quarter ended in May, Walgreens now expects the dilutive impact to be 2 to 3 cents a share.
For the month of May, Walgreens said sales at stores open a least a year fell 0.2 percent. Duane Reade stores were not include in same-store sales results.
Same-store pharmacy sales decreased 0.4 percent. Generic drug introductions in the past year had a negative effect on pharmacy sales, the company said.
Total sales in May increased 5.9 percent, to $5.7 billion, from the same month in 2009.
Yet more revelations about the hidden cost of ObamaCare. This is what happens when we send community organizers and their ilk to the White House and to Congress who enact legislation without reading it (much less ascertaining its impact on the economy).
How’s that Hope and Change going for you, folks? Next time, please vote more responsibly.
Yes, the hidden cost of healthcare reform includes non-cash tax charges on paper for a $60B company.
You bring the tar, I’ll provide the feathers …
Sorry Tom, but this was actually an intelligent change in the bill (which admittedly makes it an anomaly) that eliminated companies getting both reimbursed and a tax deduction for the same health-related expense. They used to be able to double-dip, but no longer can do that.
Many thanks Obumbles.
More costs for your socialism.
Signed,
Walgreen’s stockholders.