INCOME TAXES

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”), which was enacted on December 22, 2017, represents the most significant overhaul of the U.S. tax code in more than 30 years. Among other provisions, the Tax Act provides for a reduction of the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% and a “transition tax” to be levied on the deemed repatriation of indefinitely reinvested earnings of international subsidiaries. Since we have an October 31 fiscal year-end, the lower corporate income tax rate will be phased in, resulting in a U.S. statutory federal rate of 23.3% for fiscal 2018 and 21% for subsequent fiscal years. Other provisions under the Tax Act will not be effective for us until fiscal 2019, including limitations on deductibility of interest and executive compensation as well as a new minimum tax on Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (“GILTI”).

Due to the complexities of implementing the provisions of the Tax Act, the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued Staff Accounting Bulletin 118 (“SAB 118”), which provides guidance on accounting for tax effects of the Tax Act and permits a measurement period not to exceed one year from the enactment date for companies to complete the required analyses and accounting. As permitted under SAB 118, some elements of the tax adjustments recorded in the first quarter of 2018 due to the enactment of the Tax Act, including the remeasurement of deferred tax assets and liabilities and the transition tax, are based on reasonable estimates and are considered provisional.

During the three months ended January 31, 2018 we remeasured certain deferred tax assets and liabilities based on the new rates at which they are expected to reverse in the future and recorded a net discrete tax benefit of $28.5 million. In addition, we recorded an expense of $7.0 million for the one-time transition tax on the deemed repatriation of indefinitely reinvested earnings of our international subsidiaries. We plan to reinvest our foreign earnings to fund future non-U.S. growth and expansion, and we do not anticipate remitting such earnings to the United States. While U.S. federal tax expense has been recognized as a result of the Tax Act, no deferred tax liabilities with respect to state income taxes or foreign withholding taxes have been recognized.

We continue to analyze certain aspects of the Tax Act and refine our calculation of the impact on our deferred tax balances, which could potentially affect the measurement of these balances. The provisional amount recorded is based on our estimate of the expected reversals of certain tax assets and liabilities, which may be revised in future quarters during the one-year measurement period as additional information becomes available. The final impact related to the one-time transition tax may differ from our current estimate due to the complexity of calculating and supporting U.S. tax attributes involved in foreign tax credit calculations, such as accumulated foreign earnings and profits, foreign tax paid, and other tax components. Changes to our estimates over the one-year measurement period could be material due to, among other things: changes in interpretations of the Tax Act; future legislative action to address questions that arise from the Tax Act; changes in accounting standards for income taxes or related interpretations in response to the Tax Act; or any updates or changes to estimates we have utilized to calculate the provisional amounts. We adjusted our provisional amounts by $0.2 million during the three months ended July 31, 2018.

Beginning in fiscal year 2019, provisions under GILTI could result in incremental U.S. federal tax on our foreign subsidiaries’ income in excess of an allowed return on certain tangible property. The Financial Accounting Standards Board has determined that filers have a policy choice to account for this tax on either a period basis or a deferred tax basis. We are still evaluating the impacts of GILTI on our business model and have not yet made any accounting adjustments or policy decisions regarding this new source of incremental U.S. taxable income.

Our quarterly provision for income taxes from continuing operations is calculated using an estimated annual effective income tax rate, which is adjusted for discrete items that occur during the reporting period. Our income taxes for the three months ended July 31, 2018 were favorably impacted by the reduction of the federal corporate income tax rate resulting from the Tax Act. Discrete tax benefits of $4.2 million, including interest of $0.7 million, related to expiring statute of limitations for an uncertain tax position and $1.6 million of excess tax benefits related to the vesting of share-based compensation awards were also recorded during the quarter. Our income taxes for the nine months ended July 31, 2018 were favorably impacted by: a net discrete tax benefit of $21.5 million related to the enactment of the Tax Act; $4.1 million, including interest of $0.6 million, related to expiring statute of limitations for an uncertain tax position; $3.1 million of excess tax benefits related to the vesting of share-based compensation awards; and $2.6 million related to tax deductions on energy efficient government buildings. These benefits were partially offset by a $1.5 million reduction in certain tax credits, including the prior year Work Opportunity Tax Credits (“WOTC”) for new hires.

Our income taxes for the three and nine months ended July 31, 2017 were favorably impacted by a benefit of $15.8 million, including interest of $1.2 million, related to expiring statute of limitations for an uncertain tax position. In addition, the nine months ended July 31, 2017 also benefited from $2.7 million of excess tax benefits related to the vesting of share-based compensation awards, $1.8 million of tax deductions for energy efficient government buildings, and the 2017 WOTC for new hires.