Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

INCOME TAXES

INCOME TAXES

FirstEnergy’s interim effective tax rates reflect the estimated annual effective tax rates for 2020 and 2019. These tax rates are affected by estimated annual permanent items, such as AFUDC equity and other flow-through items, as well as discrete items that may occur in any given period but are not consistent from period to period.

FirstEnergy’s effective tax rate on continuing operations for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, was 166.7% and 20.8%, respectively. The change in effective tax rate was primarily due to a $52 million reduction in valuation allowances from the recognition of deferred gains on prior intercompany generation asset transfers that were triggered by the FES Debtors’ emergence from bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2020 and subsequent deconsolidation from FirstEnergy’s consolidated federal income tax group. See Note 3, “Discontinued Operations,” for other tax matters relating to the FES Bankruptcy that were recognized in discontinued operations.

During the three months ended March 31, 2020, FirstEnergy remeasured its reserve for uncertain tax positions for federal and state tax benefits related to the worthless stock deduction, resulting in a net decrease to the reserve of approximately $28 million, none of which had an impact on the effective tax rate. As of March 31, 2020, it is reasonably possible that FirstEnergy could record a net decrease to its reserve for uncertain tax positions by approximately $59 million within the next twelve months due to the statute of limitations expiring or resolution with taxing authorities, of which approximately $57 million would impact FirstEnergy’s effective tax rate.

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the CARES Act, an economic stimulus package in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The CARES Act contains several corporate income tax provisions, including making remaining AMT credits immediately refundable; providing a 5-year carryback of NOLs generated in tax years 2018, 2019, and 2020, and removing the 80% taxable income limitation on utilization of those NOLs if carried back to prior tax years or utilized in tax years beginning before 2021; and temporarily liberalizing the interest deductibility rules under Section 163(j) of the Tax Act, by raising the adjusted taxable income limitation from 30% to 50% for tax years 2019 and 2020 and giving taxpayers the election of using 2019 adjusted taxable income for purposes of computing 2020 interest deductibility. FirstEnergy has approximately $18 million of refundable AMT credits that will be fully refundable through the CARES Act, however, does not expect to generate additional income tax refunds from the NOL carryback provision and expects interest to be fully deductible starting in 2020. FirstEnergy does not currently expect the other provisions of the CARES Act to have a material effect on current income tax expense or the realizability of deferred income tax assets, however, new or additional changes to proposed regulations or guidelines by the IRS on Section 163(j), including their impact resulting from the CARES Act, could have a material impact.