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Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2018
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes:

As of March 31, 2018, we had no unrecognized tax benefits.

We are currently under examination for our U.S. federal income taxes under the Internal Revenue Service's Compliance Assurance Program for 2017, 2016 and 2015 and are subject to examination by numerous other taxing authorities in the U.S. and in jurisdictions such as Australia, Belgium, France, Canada, and Germany. We are generally no longer subject to U.S. federal, state and local, or non-U.S. income tax examinations by taxing authorities for years prior to 2011.

Since January 1, 2018, several states have enacted legislation effective for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2018, including changes to tax rates and apportionment methods. The impact of these changes is immaterial.

On October 24, 2016, the FASB issued ASU No. 2016-16, Accounting for Income Taxes: Intra-Entity Asset Transfers of Assets Other than Inventory, which requires companies to recognize the income tax effects of intercompany sales and transfers of assets other than inventory in the period in which the transfer occurs. Prior to ASU 2016-16, companies were required to defer the income tax effects of intercompany transfers of assets until the asset had been sold to an outside party or otherwise recognized. The new guidance is effective for public business entities for annual periods beginning after December 15, 2017 and interim periods within those annual periods. The guidance requires companies to apply a modified retrospective approach with a cumulative catch-up adjustment to opening retained earnings in the period of adoption. Accordingly, we recorded a $5.1 million decrease to opening retained earnings in the period ending March 31, 2018.

On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted comprehensive tax legislation commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”). The Tax Act makes broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code, including, but not limited to, the new global intangible low-taxed income ("GILTI") tax rules. Because of the complexity of the new GILTI tax rules, we are continuing to evaluate this provision of the Tax Act and the application of ASC 740. Under U.S. GAAP, we are allowed to make an accounting policy choice of either (1) treating taxes due on future U.S. inclusions in taxable income related to GILTI as a current-period expense when incurred (the “period cost method”) or (2) factoring such amounts into a company’s measurement of its deferred taxes (the “deferred method”). Our selection of an accounting policy with respect to the new GILTI tax rules will depend, in part, on analyzing our global income to determine whether we expect to have future U.S. inclusions in taxable income related to GILTI and, if so, what the impact is expected to be. We are not currently able to reasonably estimate the effect of the new GILTI tax rules on future U.S. inclusions in taxable income as the expected future impact of this provision of the Tax Act depends on our current structure and business. Therefore, although we have considered the current effects of GILTI when estimating our annual effective tax rate, we have not made any adjustments related to potential GILTI tax in our deferred taxes and have not made a policy decision regarding whether to record deferred taxes on GILTI.

On February 14, 2018, the FASB issued ASU No. 2018-02, Income Statement - Reporting Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Reclassification of Certain Tax Effects from Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income, which permits companies to reclassify stranded tax effects caused by 2017 tax reform between accumulated other comprehensive income (“AOCI”) and retained earnings. We have elected to adopt ASU 2018-02 to reclassify the income tax effects of the 2017 Act from AOCI to retained earnings for the period ending March 31, 2018. Accordingly, we recorded a $22.7 million increase to opening retained earnings in the period ending March 31, 2018 to reclassify the effect of the change in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate, including the reduction in the federal benefit associated with state taxes, on the gross deferred tax amounts and related valuation allowances at the date of enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act related to items remaining in AOCI.