6. Income Taxes

Reconciliations of income taxes for the periods ended March 31 are as follows.



(PPL)
	Three Months
	2018			2017
Federal income tax on Income Before Income Taxes at statutory tax rate (a)	$	119		$	186
Increase (decrease) due to:
State income taxes, net of federal income tax benefit	15			13
Valuation allowance adjustments	7			5
Impact of lower U.K. income tax rates relative to U.S. income tax rates (a)	(7		)	(48		)
U.S. income tax on foreign earnings - net of foreign tax credit (a) (b)	1			(9		)
Impact of the U.K. Finance Acts	(1		)	(3		)
Depreciation and other items not normalized (a)	(12		)	(3		)
Interest benefit on U.K. financing entities	(5		)	(4		)
Stock-based compensation	1			(3		)
Other	(1		)	(5		)
Total increase (decrease)	(2		)	(57		)
Total income taxes	$	117		$	129


(a)	The U.S. federal corporate income tax rate was reduced from 35% to 21%, as enacted by the TCJA, effective January 1, 2018.


(b)	Lower income taxes in 2017 primarily due to the tax benefit of accelerated pension contributions made in the first quarter of 2017. The related tax benefit was recognized over the annual period as a result of utilizing an estimated annual effective tax rate.



(PPL Electric)
	Three Months
	2018			2017
Federal income tax on Income Before Income Taxes at statutory tax rate (a)	$	41		$	44
Increase (decrease) due to:
State income taxes, net of federal income tax benefit	15			8
Depreciation and other items not normalized (a)	(7		)	(2		)
Stock-based compensation	—			(2		)
Total increase (decrease)	8			4
Total income taxes	$	49		$	48


(a)	The U.S. federal corporate income tax rate was reduced from 35% to 21%, as enacted by the TCJA, effective January 1, 2018.



(LKE)
	Three Months
	2018			2017
Federal income tax on Income Before Income Taxes at statutory tax rate (a)	$	38		$	58
Increase (decrease) due to:
State income taxes, net of federal income tax benefit	8			6
Amortization of excess deferred income taxes (a)	(5		)	—
Other	(2		)	(1		)
Total increase (decrease)	1			5
Total income taxes	$	39		$	63


(a)	The U.S. federal corporate income tax rate was reduced from 35% to 21%, as enacted by the TCJA, effective January 1, 2018.



(LG&E)
	Three Months
	2018			2017
Federal income tax on Income Before Income Taxes at statutory tax rate (a)	$	20		$	30
Increase (decrease) due to:
State income taxes, net of federal income tax benefit	4			3
Amortization of excess deferred income taxes (a)	(2		)	—
Other	(1		)	—
Total increase (decrease)	1			3
Total income taxes	$	21		$	33


(a)	The U.S. federal corporate income tax rate was reduced from 35% to 21%, as enacted by the TCJA, effective January 1, 2018.



(KU)
	Three Months
	2018			2017
Federal income tax on Income Before Income Taxes at statutory tax rate (a)	$	23		$	36
Increase (decrease) due to:
State income taxes, net of federal income tax benefit	5			4
Amortization of excess deferred income taxes (a)	(3		)	—
Other	(1		)	(1		)
Total increase (decrease)	1			3
Total income taxes	$	24		$	39


(a)	The U.S. federal corporate income tax rate was reduced from 35% to 21%, as enacted by the TCJA, effective January 1, 2018.

Kentucky Tax Reform

(All Registrants)

On April 14, 2018, the Kentucky House of Representatives and Kentucky Senate passed House Bill 487 (HB 487). HB 487 provides for significant changes to the Kentucky tax code including (1) adopting mandatory combined reporting for corporate members of unitary business groups for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2019 (members of a unitary business group may make an eight-year binding election to file consolidated corporate income tax returns with all members of their federal affiliated group) and (2) a reduction in the Kentucky corporate income tax rate from 6% to 5% for taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017. HB 487 became law on April 27, 2018. LKE continues to evaluate the impacts of Kentucky tax reform, but expects to incur a deferred tax charge of approximately $9 million in the second quarter of 2018 associated with the remeasurement of accumulated deferred income tax balances.

As indicated in Note 1 in the Registrants' 2017 Form 10-K, LG&E’s and KU’s accounting for income taxes is impacted by rate regulation. Therefore, reductions in accumulated deferred income tax balances due to the reduction in the Kentucky corporate income tax rate to 5% under the provisions of HB 487 may result in amounts previously collected from utility customers for these deferred taxes to be refundable to such customers over a period of time. LG&E and KU currently estimate the impact of the reduced tax rate, related to the remeasurement of deferred income taxes, to be an increase in regulatory liabilities of $16 million and $19 million. LG&E and KU continue to evaluate other impacts of Kentucky tax reform along with the associated regulatory considerations. PPL is evaluating the impact, if any, of unitary or elective consolidated income tax reporting on all its Registrants.