Income Taxes



	Quarter ended						Year to date
	2015			2014			2015			2014
Income tax provision	$	145		$	119		$	358		$	370
Effective tax rate	25.3		%	22.7		%	25.9		%	24.5		%

Our effective tax rate was lower than the U.S. federal statutory rate of 35% primarily due to the majority of our income being earned outside the U.S. where tax rates are generally lower than the U.S. rate.

Our third quarter and year to date effective tax rates were higher than the prior year primarily due to the refranchising loss (See Note 4 for details of refranchising loss) with no associated tax benefit related to the decision to dispose of our real estate in Mexico and the unfavorable impact associated with a valuation allowance charge resulting from a change in judgment regarding the future use of certain deferred tax assets in a foreign market, partially offset by a reduction in the year-over-year expected cost of repatriating foreign earnings.