This article has been updated with comments from the Medical Alley Association and the Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council (MassMEDIC).
Both houses of Congress have now passed the 2020 federal spending package, which includes a provision to permanently repeal the 2.3% medical device excise tax.
The package of eight spending bills awaits the signature of President Trump, who is expected to sign it into law by the midnight Friday deadline, according to published reports.
The repeal would be a most welcome holiday gift to the medtech industry. The tax went into effect in 2013 and has been suspended twice. One two-year pause ended in January 2018 and the second moratorium is due to expire at the end of this month. The tax on the sale of most medical technologies was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act and applies to medtech companies’ revenues, not profits. In 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to repeal the tax 283-132, but the Senate failed to act.