INCOME TAXES

The Company’s quarterly tax provision and the estimate of the annual effective tax rate are subject to significant variation due to several factors. These include variability in the pre-tax jurisdictional mix of earnings, changes in how the Company does business including entering into new businesses or geographies, changes in foreign currency exchange rates, changes in law, regulations, interpretations and administrative practices, relative changes of expenses or losses for which tax benefits are not recognized and the impact of discrete items. The impact of these items on the effective tax rate will be greater at lower levels of pre-tax earnings.

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017

On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Act”) was signed into law. The Act makes broad and significantly complex changes to the U.S. corporate income tax system by, among other things: reducing the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%; transitioning U.S. international taxation to a modified territorial tax system; and imposing a mandatory one-time deemed repatriation tax, payable over eight years, on accumulated undistributed foreign subsidiary earnings and profits as of December 31, 2017. The Company recognized provisional discrete net tax charges of $19.9 million related to the enactment of the Act in the fourth quarter of Fiscal 2017.

Due to proposed regulatory guidance issued by the Internal Revenue Service during the second quarter of Fiscal 2018, the Company recognized a measurement period charge of $2.0 million during the thirteen weeks ended August 4, 2018, adjusting the provisional tax amounts related to the mandatory one-time deemed repatriation tax on accumulated undistributed foreign earnings.

As a result of the Company's initial analysis of the impact of the Act and the measurement period adjustment, the Company has incurred discrete net income tax charges in an aggregate amount of $21.9 million since the enactment of the Act, which consists of:


•	$23.7 million of provisional tax expense related to the mandatory one-time deemed repatriation tax on accumulated undistributed foreign subsidiary earnings and profits of approximately $385.8 million;


•	$3.8 million of provisional tax expense related to the remeasurement of the Company's ending deferred tax assets and liabilities at February 3, 2018, as a result of the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate reduction from 35% to 21%; and,


•	$5.6 million of tax benefit for the decrease in its federal deferred tax liability on unremitted foreign earnings.

Given the significant changes resulting from and complexities associated with the Act, the estimated financial impacts related to the enactment of the Act are provisional and assessed as of August 22, 2018. The ultimate outcome may differ from these provisional amounts and could impact the provision for income taxes in Fiscal 2018, possibly materially, due to, among other things, additional analysis, changes in interpretations and assumptions the Company has made, additional regulatory guidance that may be issued and actions the Company may take as a result of the Act. Provisional amounts are expected to be finalized after the Company’s Fiscal 2017 U.S. corporate income tax return is filed in the fourth quarter of Fiscal 2018, but no later than one year from the enactment of the Act.

Other

The Company incurred discrete non-cash income tax benefits of $0.2 million and charges of $7.9 million for the thirteen and twenty-six weeks ended August 4, 2018, respectively, and charges of $0.7 million and $9.9 million for the thirteen and twenty-six weeks ended July 29, 2017, respectively, related to the expiration of certain share-based compensation awards, recognized in income tax expense (benefit) due to changes in share-based compensation accounting standards adopted by the Company in the first quarter of Fiscal 2017.