Massachusetts must return $18 million
in prescription taxes it has collected from pharmacies, a Suffolk
Superior Court ruled Monday, the Boston Globe reported.
Judge Allan van Gestel said state officials didn’t get
federal approval for the $36-million prescription tax because it
wasn’t properly drafted by the Legislature, the newspaper
reported. The $1.30 per prescription tax may be dead, the Globe
said.
More than 100 pharmacies sued Massachusetts and earlier this
year many tried to pass along the tax to non-Medicaid customers,
the Globe reported. The pharmacies in February took on the cost
of the tax themselves and many refunded customers the money that
had been collected, the paper said.
Walgreen Co. spokesman Michael Polzin told the paper, “we
felt it was an unfair tax all along.” The tax was implemented to
help the state raise money to offset the cost of Medicaid, the
paper said.
Bloomberg News
