New Brunswick-Based Johnson & Johnson Posts Rare Quarterly Loss

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Johnson & Johnson posted a rare quarterly loss that's attributed to changes caused by U.S. tax reform.

The pharmaceutical giant is headquartered in New Brunswick, and employs thousands of people in New Jersey. They posted a $10.71 billion loss in their fourth-quarter 2017 tax filings, made public Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Johnson & Johnson posted the loss because of a $13.6 billion tax charge they are now paying on $66 billion in earnings accumulated overseas that they are now bringing back to the U.S., according to the report.

Johnson & Johson's Chief Financial Officer Dominic Caruso said in an interview with Reuters Tuesday that the company is bringing $66 billion back to the U.S. from overseas immediately.

The maker of biotech drugs and Band-Aids said the loss amounts to $3.99 per share, according to nj.com. A year earlier, the company had a net profit of $3.8 billion, or $1.38 per share.

Many transnational corporations, like Apple, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, did not pay taxes for years on billions of dollars in foreign earnings. Before tax reform, most companies refused to bring back their earnings overseas, saying they would have to pay too high a tax. Trump's tax reform lowered what they pay, so many companies are returning earnings to U.S. shores, according to the report.

Apple, for example, said it will bring almost $252 billion in cash back to the U.S. and will pay a tax of $38 billion on it. Johnson & Johnson plans to move $12 billion of that cash immediately, Caruso said; much of that be used to pay down debt and to fund U.S. operations, according to the reports.