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Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Mar. 29, 2013
Income Tax Expense (Benefit) [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes

We file income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and in various U.S. states and foreign jurisdictions. In 2008, the IRS completed field examinations of our tax returns for 2002 through 2004 and proposed an additional tax liability of $34.5 million, excluding interest. We contested this proposed additional tax liability in the IRS Office of Appeals and resolved several of the issues. On December 8, 2011, the IRS issued a Statutory Notice of Deficiency, revising the assessment of additional taxes for 2002 through 2004 to $19.8 million, excluding interest. The Notice relates primarily to inter-company adjustments between related companies, computational adjustments to the research and development ("R&D") credit and reductions to the benefits of tax credit carrybacks and carryforwards to subsequent years. On March 6, 2012, we filed a petition in the U.S. Tax Court to request a redetermination of the tax deficiency regarding certain IRS adjustments for 2004. We deposited $18.0 million as a cash bond with the IRS in 2008, and converted this amount to tax payments in March 2012. On May 8, 2012, the IRS filed its petition response in the U.S. Tax Court, in which the IRS conceded the R&D credit adjustment for 2004. In June 2012, the federal statute of limitations for the 2002 and 2003 tax years expired.

In addition, in 2010 the IRS completed field examinations for 2005 through 2007 and proposed an additional tax liability of $34.2 million, excluding interest. On January 23, 2012, the IRS issued a Statutory Notice of Deficiency, revising the assessment of additional taxes for 2005 through 2007 to $21.4 million, excluding interest. The Notice relates primarily to inter-company adjustments between related companies and reductions to the benefits of tax credit carrybacks and carryforwards to subsequent years. On April 20, 2012, we filed a petition in the U.S. Tax Court to request a redetermination of the tax deficiencies regarding certain IRS adjustments for 2005 through 2007. On June 21, 2012, the IRS filed its petition response in the U.S. Tax Court.

On August 15, 2012, the case for the 2004 tax year was combined with that for the 2005 through 2007 tax years. A judge has been assigned to our case and a motion for continuance has been granted. We believe we have made adequate tax payments or accrued adequate amounts for our tax liabilities for 2004 through 2007 and that the outcome of the above matters will not have a material adverse effect on our consolidated operating results, cash flows or financial position.

On January 31, 2013, the IRS conceded an adjustment for certain inter-company transactions in our litigation over the 2004 through 2007 tax years.  The concession only impacted our 2007 tax year. Our other inter-company transactions continue to be subject to litigation for 2004 through 2007. As a result of this concession, we recognized a tax and interest benefit of $6.8 million during the three months ended March 29, 2013 due to the release of certain tax reserves. We expect to present our legal arguments on other inter-company transactions that are subject to ligation to the U.S. Tax Court by the end of 2013.
On April 19, 2013, the IRS notified us that we would be audited for each of the 2010 and 2011 tax years. We believe we have made adequate tax payments or accrued adequate amounts for our tax liabilities for 2010 and 2011 and that the outcome of the audit will not have a material adverse effect on our consolidated operating results, cash flows or financial position.
Other significant jurisdictions in which we are or may be subject to examination for fiscal years 2002 forward include China (including Hong Kong), Ireland, Malaysia, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom and the state of California. We believe we have made adequate tax payments and/or accrued adequate amounts such that the outcome of these audits will have no material adverse effect on our consolidated operating results. Due to the potential resolution of various tax examinations, and the expiration of various statutes of limitations, it is possible that our gross unrecognized tax benefits may change within the next twelve months. However, given the number of years remaining subject to examination and the number of matters being examined, we are unable to estimate the full range of possible adjustments to the balance of gross unrecognized tax benefits.

Our effective tax rate reflects the impact of a significant amount of our earnings being taxed in foreign jurisdictions at rates below the U.S. statutory tax rate. Our effective tax rate for the three months ended March 29, 2013 was -2.6%, compared with 1.7% for the three months ended March 30, 2012. The net decrease in our effective tax rate was primarily due to higher one-time tax benefits in 2013 compared to 2012. During the three months ended March 29, 2013, we recognized a benefit of $10.6 million resulting from the enactment of the American Taxpayer Relief Act in January 2013, which extended retroactively, the federal research and development credit for two years from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2013. In addition, we reversed $6.8 million of liabilities for uncertain tax positions due to the IRS conceding an adjustment for certain 2007 inter-company transactions in our litigation over the 2004 through 2007 tax years. During the three months ended March 30, 2012, we reversed $6.9 million of liabilities for uncertain tax positions as a result of a Statutory Notice of Deficiency received from the IRS for 2005 to 2007. In addition, we reversed $5.2 million of liabilities for uncertain tax positions upon expiration of the statutes of limitations for certain foreign jurisdictions.

As of March 29, 2013, we had total gross unrecognized tax benefits of $282.2 million which, if recognized, would impact our effective tax rate. On December 31, 2012, we had total gross unrecognized tax benefits of $275.9 million. We are unable to make a reasonable estimate as to when cash settlements with the relevant taxing authorities will occur.
    
We recognize interest and penalties related to uncertain tax positions in our income tax provision. We accrued approximately $49.3 million and $48.8 million for the payment of interest and penalties related to uncertain tax positions as of March 29, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively.