Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

On December 22, 2017, the U.S. enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Tax Reform Act”), which significantly changed U.S. tax law. The Tax Reform Act, among other things, lowered the Company’s U.S. statutory federal income tax rate from 35% to 21% effective January 1, 2018, while implementing a modified territorial tax system. The Tax Reform Act also provides for two new anti-base erosion provisions, the global intangible low-taxed income (“GILTI”) provision and the base-erosion and anti-abuse tax (“BEAT”) provision which effectively creates a new minimum tax on certain future foreign earnings.

For the three months ended September 30, 2019, we earned $96.2 million before taxes and provided for income taxes of $25.6 million resulting in an effective tax rate of 26.7%. For the nine months ended September 30, 2019, we earned $255.2 million before taxes and provided for income taxes of $64.6 million resulting in an effective tax rate of 25.3%. The effective tax rate varied from the U.S. federal statutory rate for the three months ended September 30, 2019 primarily due to the BEAT provision in the Tax Reform Act and state tax. The effective tax rate varied from the U.S. federal statutory rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 primarily due to the BEAT provision in the Tax Reform Act and state tax, partially offset by the net impact of foreign operations.

For the three months ended September 30, 2018, we earned $44.4 million before taxes and provided for income taxes of $14.9 million resulting in an effective tax rate of 33.6%. For the nine months ended September 30, 2018, we earned $97.7 million before taxes and provided for income taxes of $37.0 million resulting in an effective tax rate of 37.9%. The effective tax rate varied from the U.S. federal statutory rate for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018 primarily due to the net impact of foreign operations, including losses in certain foreign jurisdictions for which no tax benefit was provided.

As of September 30, 2019, the amount of unrecognized tax benefits decreased by $1.8 million from December 31, 2018. With limited exception, we are no longer subject to U.S. federal income tax audits for years through 2016, state and local income tax audits for years through 2012 or non-U.S. income tax audits for years through 2011. We are currently under examination for various years in Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the U.S., Venezuela, and Vietnam.

It is reasonably possible that within the next 12 months the effective tax rate will be impacted by the resolution of some or all of the matters audited by various taxing authorities. It is also reasonably possible that we will have the statute of limitations close in various taxing jurisdictions within the next 12 months. As such, we estimate we could record a reduction in our tax expense of approximately $6 million within the next 12 months.