Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Jul. 31, 2019

INCOME TAXES

On December 22, 2017, the Tax Act was enacted into law, which, among other provisions, reduced the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% and required companies to pay a one-time transition tax on the deemed repatriation of indefinitely reinvested earnings of international subsidiaries. Our U.S. statutory federal tax rate for fiscal 2019 and future years was reduced to 21% from our blended rate of 23.3% in fiscal 2018. Other provisions under the Tax Act became effective for us in 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”), which we have elected to account for as a period cost.

Following the enactment of the Tax Act, the SEC issued guidance that allowed us to record provisional amounts during a measurement period not to exceed one year from the enactment date. During the first quarter of 2018, we remeasured certain deferred tax assets and liabilities based on the new tax rates at which they were expected to reverse in the future and recorded a provisional one-time tax benefit of $28.7 million related to this remeasurement. In addition, we recorded a provisional expense of $7.0 million for the one-time transition tax on the deemed repatriation of indefinitely reinvested earnings of our international subsidiaries. We completed our analysis of the impacts of these provisions under the Tax Act as of October 31, 2018, and recorded adjustments during the fourth quarter of 2018 that (i) increased the benefit to $29.6 million for the remeasurement of certain deferred tax assets and liabilities and (ii) decreased the expense to $4.5 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 federal and state income taxes or foreign withholding taxes have been recognized.

Our quarterly tax provision is calculated using an estimated annual tax rate that is adjusted for discrete items occurring during the period to arrive at our effective tax rate. During the three and nine months ended July 31, 2019, we had effective tax rates of 18.9% and 24.5%, respectively, resulting in provisions for taxes of $8.5 million and $25.8 million, respectively. Our effective tax rate for the three months ended July 31, 2019 was impacted by the following discrete items: a $2.0 million benefit from an expiring statute of limitations and a $0.5 million benefit from certain credits. Our effective tax rate for the nine months ended July 31, 2019 was impacted by the following discrete items: a $2.0 million benefit from an expiring statute of limitations; a $1.4 million provision for reserves; a $1.3 million provision related to the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (“WOTC”); and a $1.1 million benefit from the vesting of share-based compensation awards.

During the three and nine months ended July 31, 2018, we had effective tax rates of 6.6% and (17.1)%, respectively, resulting in a provision for tax of $2.4 million and a benefit from tax of $12.7 million, respectively. Our effective tax rate for the three months ended July 31, 2018 was impacted by the following discrete items: a $4.2 million benefit from an expiring statute of limitations and a $1.6 million benefit from the vesting of share-based compensation awards. Our effective tax rate for the nine months ended July 31, 2018 was impacted by the following discrete items: a $21.5 million benefit related to the Tax Act enactment; a $4.1 million benefit from an expiring statute of limitations; a $3.1 million benefit from the vesting of share-based compensation awards; a $2.6 million benefit for energy efficient government buildings; and a $1.5 million provision for certain tax credits, including WOTC.