E-drug: Re: Study on tax subsidies for donations of expiring drugs
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear E-druggers:
Bonnie Fundafunda's comments around tax deductions for donated
drugs prompt me to offer one or two observations. First, donation
of expiring drugs warrants no support or encouragement under any
circumstances we can conjure. We know the argument that
expiration dating is conservative, and we will take it seriously soon
after WHO, MSF, HAI and Oxfam do. Maybe.
Present tax policy, contrary to popular conjecture, does not
encourage donation of short-dated or expired drugs. Such products
(and samples too, even if well-dated) get zero tax deduction in the
US, because the deduction is a percentage of market value. Since
such drugs have no market value, even Arthur Andersen couldn't
make it yield more than a zero deduction.
A policy to condition tax deductibility on conformance to the
Interagency Guidelines merits careful consideration. In late 1999,
PQMD endorsed Congressman Lloyd Doggett's bill to do precisely
that for the US. Unfortunately, the bill has made little progress,
even though it has more than 40 cosponsors.
As for the quality of donations as measured by conformance to the
Guidelines, a report soon to be published will provide insights and
important recommendations for the future.
James B. Russo
Executive Director
The Partnership for Quality Medical Donations
146 Koenig Road
Bernville, PA 19506, USA
+1 610 488 8303
+1 610 488 7036 (fax)
JBRusso@aol.com
--
To send a message to E-Drug, write to: e-drug@usa.healthnet.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe, write to: majordomo@usa.healthnet.org
in the body of the message type: subscribe e-drug OR unsubscribe e-drug
To contact a person, send a message to: e-drug-help@usa.healthnet.org
Information and archives: http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html