Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 29, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

Income tax benefit was $36.2 million for the first quarter of 2020 and income tax expense was $6.4 million for the first quarter of 2019. The first quarter of 2020 includes a tax benefit of $23.0 million on the impairment of goodwill and a tax benefit of $23.8 million for the loss on the Company's investment in Persol Holdings, compared with tax expense in the first quarter of 2019 of $4.1 million from a gain on this investment. The first quarter of 2020 benefit was partially offset by losses on tax exempt investments in life insurance policies and income from the sale of assets discussed in the Sale of Assets footnote.

Our tax expense is affected by recurring items, such as the amount of pretax income and its mix by jurisdiction, U.S. work opportunity credits and the change in cash surrender value of tax exempt investments in life insurance policies. It is also affected by discrete items that may occur in any given period but are not consistent from period to period, such as tax law changes, changes in judgment regarding the realizability of deferred tax assets, the tax effects of stock compensation, and changes in the fair value of the Company’s investment in Persol Holdings, which are treated as discrete since they cannot be estimated. The first quarter of 2020 impairment of goodwill was treated as discrete.

The work opportunity credit program is a temporary provision in the U.S. tax law and expires for employees hired after 2020. While the program has routinely been extended, it is uncertain whether it will again be extended. In the event the program is not renewed, we will continue to receive credits for qualified employees hired prior to 2021. The impact of the current economic slow-down resulting from the COVID-19 crisis did not begin until March 2020. At the end of the first quarter, the impact of the pandemic did not change our judgement on the realizability of deferred tax assets or our plans to repatriate cash from foreign subsidiaries.