Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2022

Income Taxes [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Note 14 – Income Taxes

The Company’s effective tax rate was 6.5% and (1.3)% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, respectively.  The Company’s effective tax rate was 3.4% and 3.2% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021, respectively.   The increase in the effective tax rate for the third quarter of the year is primarily attributed to the increase in pretax income with a steady year-over-year income tax benefit associated with the tax deduction for qualifying infrastructure. The decrease in the effective tax rate for the first nine months of the year is primarily attributed to an increase in our income tax benefit associated with the tax deduction for qualifying infrastructure and the amortization of the regulatory liability for the tax repair catch-up adjustment during 2022 in our Regulated Natural Gas segment.  In determining its interim tax provision, the Company reflects its estimated permanent and flow-through tax differences for the taxable year.

The statutory Federal tax rate is 21.0% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021. For states with a corporate net income tax, the state corporate net income tax rates range from 2.5% to 9.99% for all periods presented. On July 8, 2022, Pennsylvania enacted House Bill 1342 into law, which among other things, reduces Pennsylvania’s corporate income tax rate from 9.99% to 8.99% beginning January 1, 2023, and an additional 0.5% annually through 2031, when it reaches to 4.99%. The Company evaluated the impacts of the tax rate change and recorded, in the third quarter, a reduction to our deferred tax liabilities of $232,361 with a corresponding reduction primarily to our regulatory assets.

The Company uses a method of tax accounting for certain qualifying infrastructure investments at its Peoples Natural Gas (“PNG”) and Peoples Gas Company (“PGC”) subsidiaries, its largest natural gas subsidiaries in Pennsylvania, that allows a tax deduction for qualifying utility infrastructure. Consistent with the Company’s accounting for differences between book and tax expenditures in Pennsylvania in its other regulated subsidiaries, the Company uses the flow-through method to account for this timing difference. For PNG, the Company calculated the income tax benefits for qualifying capital expenditures made prior to the date of its acquisition in March 16, 2020 (“catch-up adjustment”) and recognized a regulatory liability of $160,655 for these income tax benefits. On May 6, 2021, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved a settlement order which stipulates, among other points, that the catch-up adjustment be provided by a surcredit to utility customers over a five-year period beginning August 2021, and the Company can continue to use flow-through accounting for the current tax repair benefit until its next base rate case. During the third quarter and the first nine months of 2022, $3,278 and $20,516, respectively, of income tax benefits were amortized as refunds to Peoples Natural Gas customers. For PGC, the Company calculated the catch-up adjustment from prior to the 2021 tax year and recognized a regulatory liability of $13,808 for these income tax benefits. The Company will maintain this regulatory liability on its consolidated balance sheet until accounting treatment is determined in its next base rate case.