Income Taxes

The effective tax rate was 1% for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 18% for the three months ended March 31, 2017. The effective tax rate in each period differed from the U.S. statutory tax rates of 21% in 2018 and 35% in 2017, principally due to the benefit from foreign operations which reflects the impact of lower income tax rates in locations outside the United States, tax exemptions and incentives in Puerto Rico and other foreign tax jurisdictions and business development activities.

The change in the effective tax rate for the three months ended March 31, 2018 over the prior year was principally due to the effects of the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) in December 2017. The Act significantly changes the U.S. corporate tax system, reducing the U.S. federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, requiring companies to pay a one-time transition tax on a mandatory deemed repatriation of earnings of certain foreign subsidiaries that were previously untaxed and creating new taxes on certain foreign sourced earnings. The Act also creates a territorial tax system that generally excludes dividends from foreign subsidiaries from U.S. taxation. Specific to 2018, there is a beneficial impact due to timing of provisions related to the earnings from certain foreign subsidiaries.

Given the complexity of the Act and anticipated guidance from the U.S. Treasury about implementing the Act, the company’s analysis and accounting for the tax effects of the enactment of the Act is preliminary. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the company recorded, as a direct result of the Act, $4.5 billion of transition tax expense, as well as $4.1 billion of net tax benefit for deferred tax remeasurement. Both of these amounts are provisional estimates, as the company has not fully completed its analysis and calculation of foreign earnings subject to the transition tax or its analysis of certain other aspects of the Act that could result in adjustments to the remeasurement of deferred tax balances. Upon completion of the analysis in 2018, these estimates may be adjusted through income tax expense in the consolidated statement of earnings. No adjustments to these provisional estimates were made during the three months ended March 31, 2018. The Act also created a minimum tax on certain foreign sourced earnings. The taxability of the foreign sourced earnings and the applicable tax rates are dependent on future events. While the company is still evaluating its accounting policy for the minimum tax on foreign sourced earnings, the provisional estimates of the tax effects of the Act were reported on the basis that the minimum tax will be recognized in tax expense in the year it is incurred as a period expense.

Due to the potential for resolution of federal, state and foreign examinations and the expiration of various statutes of limitations, it is reasonably possible that the company’s gross unrecognized tax benefits balance may change within the next twelve months by up to $38 million. At the time of separation, AbbVie and Abbott Laboratories (Abbott) entered into a tax sharing agreement which provides that Abbott is liable for and has indemnified AbbVie against all income tax liabilities for periods prior to the separation. Accordingly, Abbott will indemnify and hold AbbVie harmless if the tax positions are settled for amounts in excess of recorded liabilities, and AbbVie will not benefit if prior tax positions are resolved more favorably than recorded amounts.