Income Taxes

The income tax benefit consists of the following:



	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
(millions)	2016			2015			2016			2015
Current	$	148		$	(45	)	$	213		$	64
Deferred	(285		)	69			(699		)	(244		)
Total Income Tax (Benefit) Provision	$	(137	)	$	24		$	(486	)	$	(180	)
Effective Tax Rate	48.9		%	(9.3		)%	39.5		%	30.4		%

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 US and, accordingly, we now record additional deferred income taxes, net of estimated foreign tax credits.

Effective Tax Rate (ETR) At the end of each interim period, we apply a forecasted annualized effective tax rate (ETR) to current year earnings or loss before tax, which can result in significant interim ETR fluctuations. Our ETR for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2016, varied as compared with the three and nine months ended September 30, 2015, resulting in a higher income tax benefit and ETR primarily due to:


•	a higher loss before income taxes for the first nine months of 2016 as compared with the first nine months of 2015;


•	a period to period shift of the individual components of net income (loss) among tax jurisdictions with different rates, which is also impacted by the timing and magnitude of divestiture activities. See Note 4. Divestitures and Note 13. Segment Information; and


•	the change in our permanent reinvestment assumption, noted above, which 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, which reduced the income tax benefit.

In our major tax jurisdictions, the earliest years remaining open to examination are as follows: US – 2013, Equatorial Guinea – 2011 and Israel – 2011.