Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

NOTE 5.  Income Taxes

The Company files income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction, and various states and foreign jurisdictions. With few exceptions, the Company is no longer subject to U.S. federal, state and local, or non-U.S. income tax examinations by tax authorities for years before 2003.

The IRS completed its field examination of the Company’s U.S. federal income tax returns for the years 2005 through 2007 in the fourth quarter of 2009. The Company protested certain IRS positions within these tax years and entered into the administrative appeals process with the IRS during the first quarter of 2010. During the first quarter of 2010, the IRS completed its field examination of the Company’s U.S. federal income tax return for the 2008 year. The Company protested certain IRS positions for 2008 and entered into the administrative appeals process with the IRS during the second quarter of 2010. During the first quarter of 2011, the IRS completed its field examination of the Company’s U.S. federal income tax return for the 2009 year. The Company protested certain IRS positions for 2009 and entered into the administrative appeals process with the IRS during the second quarter of 2011. Currently, the Company is under examination by the IRS for its U.S. federal income tax returns for the years 2010 and 2011. It is anticipated that the IRS will complete its examination of the Company for 2010 by the end of the first quarter of 2012, and for 2011 by the end of the first quarter of 2013. As of September 30, 2011, the IRS has not proposed any significant adjustments to the Company’s tax positions for which the Company is not adequately reserved.

During the first quarter of 2010, the Company paid the agreed upon assessments for the 2005 tax year. During the second quarter of 2010, the Company paid the agreed upon assessments for the 2008 tax year. During the second quarter of 2011, the Company received a refund from the IRS for the 2004 tax year. Payments relating to other proposed assessments arising from the 2005 through 2011 examinations may not be made until a final agreement is reached between the Company and the IRS on such assessments or upon a final resolution resulting from the administrative appeals process or judicial action. In addition to the U.S. federal examination, there is also limited audit activity in several U.S. state and foreign jurisdictions.

3M anticipates changes to the Company’s uncertain tax positions due to the closing of the various audit years mentioned above. Currently, the Company is not able to reasonably estimate the amount by which the liability for unrecognized tax benefits will increase or decrease during the next 12 months as a result of the ongoing income tax authority examinations. The total amounts of unrecognized tax benefits that, if recognized, would affect the effective tax rate as of September 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, respectively, are $319 million and $394 million.

The Company recognizes interest and penalties accrued related to unrecognized tax benefits in tax expense. The Company recognized in the consolidated statement of income on a gross basis approximately $3 million of benefit and $4 million of expense for the three months ended September 30, 2011 and September 30, 2010, respectively, and had an immaterial impact and approximately $5 million of benefit for the nine months ended September 30, 2011 and September 30, 2010, respectively. At September 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, accrued interest and penalties in the consolidated balance sheet on a gross basis were $58 million and $52 million, respectively. Included in these interest and penalty amounts are interest and penalties related to tax positions for which the ultimate deductibility is highly certain but for which there is uncertainty about the timing of such deductibility. Because of the impact of deferred tax accounting, other than interest and penalties, the disallowance of the shorter deductibility period would not affect the annual effective tax rate but would accelerate the payment of cash to the taxing authority to an earlier period.

The effective tax rate for the first nine months of 2011 was 28.1 percent, compared to 28.3 percent in the first nine months of 2010, a decrease of 0.2 percent. The first nine months of 2010 includes a one-time income tax charge of $84 million as a result of the March 2010 enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, including modifications made in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which increased the first nine months 2010 effective tax rate by approximately 1.8 percent. Since future anticipated retiree health care liabilities and related tax subsidies were already reflected in 3M’s financial statements, the change in law resulted in a reduction of the value of the company’s deferred tax asset related to the subsidy. Other factors on a combined net basis increased the effective tax rate for the first nine months of 2011 when compared to the first nine months of 2010 by 1.6 percent, with the most significant item related to international taxes. This was due primarily to the one-time 2010 tax benefits resulting from the corporate alignment transactions that allowed the Company to increase its ownership of a foreign subsidiary. These transactions are described in the section of Note 4 entitled “Purchase and Sale of Subsidiary Shares and Transfers of Ownership Interests Involving Non-Wholly Owned Subsidiaries”. In addition to the transaction noted above, a corporate reorganization of a wholly owned subsidiary provided a one-time benefit to international taxes in the second quarter of 2011. The Company’s effective tax rate also benefited during the first nine months of 2011 from the reinstatement of the research and development credit and adjustments to its income tax reserves.

The provision for income taxes is determined using the asset and liability approach. Under this approach, deferred income taxes represent the expected future tax consequences of temporary differences between the carrying amounts and tax basis of assets and liabilities. The Company records a valuation allowance to reduce its deferred tax assets when uncertainty regarding their realizability exits. As of September 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, the Company had valuation allowances of $128 million on its deferred tax assets.