Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

Our effective income tax rates were 57.4% and 7.9% for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019. The 2020 tax rate includes tax benefits from the CARES Act enacted on March 27, 2020 due to the Act's five year net operating loss carry back provision while the 2019 tax rate reflects tax benefits associated with intangible income derived from serving non-U.S. markets. The carry back provisions enable us to benefit from certain losses and re-measure certain deferred tax assets and liabilities at the former federal tax rate of 35%. The tax rates in 2020 and 2019 also reflect research and development tax credits and excess tax benefits related to share-based payments.

Federal income tax audits have been settled for all years prior to 2015. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) began the 2015-2017 federal tax audit in the first quarter of 2019. We are also subject to examination in major state and international jurisdictions for the 2007-2018 tax years. We believe appropriate provisions for all outstanding tax issues have been made for all jurisdictions and all open years.

Audit outcomes and the timing of audit settlements are subject to significant uncertainty. It is reasonably possible that within the next 12 months unrecognized tax benefits related to federal matters under audit may decrease by up to $705 based on current estimates.