Income Taxes (Notes)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2018

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

Income tax provision as a percentage of income before income from investments in unconsolidated affiliates was 23.0% and 32.8% in the three months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively, and was 24.2% and 32.2% in the six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively. The lower rates in 2018 were primarily attributable to the enactment of the Tax Act, which reduced the U.S federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent beginning in 2018, and is further described below. The rates include $77 million of income tax expense associated with the $229 million gain on the sale of a 55% interest of the Company’s Lending Solutions business in the first quarter of 2018 and $9 million of income tax expense associated with the Company’s share of the gain on the sale of a business at StoneRiver in the first quarter of 2017.

On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted comprehensive tax legislation commonly referred to as The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Tax Act makes broad changes to the U.S. tax code, including, but not limited to, (1) reducing the U.S. federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent beginning in 2018; (2) requiring companies to pay a one-time transition tax on certain un-repatriated earnings of foreign subsidiaries; (3) generally eliminating U.S. federal income taxes on dividends from foreign subsidiaries; (4) requiring U.S. federal taxable income to include certain earnings of controlled foreign corporations; and (5) creating a new limitation on deductible interest expense.

During the six months ended June 30, 2018, there have been no changes to the provisional adjustments recorded in 2017 as a result of the Tax Act. The Company’s accounting for certain elements of the Tax Act continues to be evaluated; however, any associated impacts are not expected to be material.