Income Taxes

A reconciliation of unrecognized tax benefits is as follows:



	9/8/2018			12/30/2017
Balance, beginning of year	$	2,212		$	1,885
Additions for tax positions related to the current year	102			309
Additions for tax positions from prior years	124			86
Reductions for tax positions from prior years	(734		)	(51		)
Settlement payments	(229		)	(4		)
Statutes of limitations expiration	(28		)	(33		)
Translation and other	(10		)	20
Balance, end of period	$	1,437		$	2,212

For the 12 weeks ended September 8, 2018, we recognized a non-cash tax benefit of $364 million ($0.26 per share) resulting from the conclusion of certain international tax audits. In the second quarter of 2018, we reached an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) resolving all open matters related to the audits of taxable years 2012 and 2013. The conclusion of certain international tax audits and the resolution with the IRS, collectively, resulted in a non-cash tax benefit totaling $678 million ($0.48 per share) for the 36 weeks ended September 8, 2018.

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

During the fourth quarter of 2017, the TCJ Act was enacted in the United States. Among its many provisions, the TCJ Act imposed a mandatory one-time transition tax on undistributed international earnings and reduced the U.S. corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, effective January 1, 2018. As a result of the enactment of the TCJ Act, we recognized a provisional net tax expense of $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017. See Note 5 to our consolidated financial statements in our 2017 Form 10-K for further information on this provisional net tax expense.

For the 12 weeks ended September 8, 2018, we recognized additional provisional transition tax expense of $76 million ($0.05 per share) reflecting the TCJ Act impact on the conclusion of certain international tax audits, as discussed above. For the 36 weeks ended September 8, 2018, we recognized additional provisional transition tax expense of $854 million ($0.60 per share) reflecting the impact of additional transition tax guidance issued by the IRS through the third quarter of 2018, the TCJ Act impact on the conclusion of certain international tax audits and the resolution with the IRS of all open matters related to the audits of taxable years 2012 and 2013, as discussed above, as well as the impact of actions taken by states within the United States that adopted the TCJ Act. These amounts were in addition to the provisional net tax expense of $2.5 billion recognized in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The TCJ Act also created a new requirement that certain income earned by foreign subsidiaries, known as global intangible low-tax income (GILTI), must be included in the gross income of their U.S. shareholder. The FASB allows an accounting policy election of either recognizing deferred taxes for temporary differences expected to reverse as GILTI in future years or recognizing such taxes as a current-period expense when incurred. During the first quarter of 2018, we elected to treat the tax effect of GILTI as a current-period expense when incurred.

The components of the provisional net tax expense recorded in 2017 and through the 36 weeks ended September 8, 2018 were based on currently available information and additional information needs to be prepared, obtained and/or analyzed to determine the final amounts. The provisional tax expense for the mandatory repatriation of undistributed international earnings will require further analysis of certain foreign exchange gains or losses, substantiation of foreign tax credits, as well as estimated cash and cash equivalents as of November 30, 2018, the tax year-end of our foreign subsidiaries. The provisional tax benefit for the remeasurement of deferred taxes will require additional information necessary for the preparation of our U.S. federal tax return, and further analysis and interpretation of certain provisions of the TCJ Act impacting deferred taxes, for example 100% expensing of qualified assets, could impact our deferred tax balance as of December 30, 2017.

Tax effects for these items will be recorded as discrete adjustments to our income tax provision, once complete. We elected to adopt the guidance issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission that allows for a measurement period, not to exceed one year after the enactment date of the TCJ Act, to finalize the recording of the related tax impacts. We currently expect to finalize and record any resulting adjustments by the end of 2018.

The recorded impact of the TCJ Act is provisional and the final amount may differ, possibly materially, due to, among other things, changes in estimates, interpretations and assumptions we have made, changes in IRS interpretations, the issuance of new guidance, legislative actions, changes in accounting standards or related interpretations in response to the TCJ Act and future actions by states within the United States that have not currently adopted the TCJ Act.

For further unaudited information and discussion of the potential impact of the TCJ Act, refer to “Item 1A. Risk Factors” and Note 5 to our consolidated financial statements in our 2017 Form 10-K and “Our Critical Accounting Policies,” “Our Business Risks” and “Our Liquidity and Capital Resources” in Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in this Form 10-Q.