Income Taxes

The income tax benefit consists of the following:



	Three Months Ended March 31,
(millions)	2016			2015
Current	$	20		$	10
Deferred	(186		)	(30		)
Total Income Tax Benefit	$	(166	)	$	(20	)
Effective Tax Rate	36.6		%	47.6		%

Accumulated Undistributed Earnings of Foreign Subsidiaries As of December 31, 2015, we no longer consider our foreign subsidiaries’ undistributed earnings to be indefinitely reinvested outside the United States and, accordingly, recorded additional deferred income taxes, net of estimated foreign tax credits.

Effective Tax Rate (ETR) Our ETR decreased first quarter 2016 as compared with first quarter 2015. This is primarily due to a higher income tax benefit as compared with the change in the components of the overall net loss from period to period, which is impacted by certain income items with different tax rates.

Also, during first quarter 2016, the change in our permanent reinvestment assumption, noted above, resulted in additional deferred income tax expense (net of estimated foreign tax credits) being recorded on certain income items, including income from equity method investees and increased earnings in our foreign jurisdictions with rates that vary from the US statutory rate. This additional deferred income tax expense had the result of offsetting our income tax benefit to a greater extent in first quarter 2016 thereby driving the ETR lower than it would have been if additional deferred taxes had not been recorded.

In our major tax jurisdictions, the earliest years remaining open to examination are as follows: US – 2012, Equatorial Guinea – 2010 and Israel – 2011.