(7) Income Taxes

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (Tax Act), signed into law on December 22, 2017, made significant changes to the Internal Revenue Code. These changes included, among others, a decrease in the federal statutory income tax rate from 35% to 21% beginning in 2018.

Total income taxes for 2019, 2018 and 2017 were allocated as follows:



	2019		2018		2017
	(Amounts are in thousands)
Earnings	$	780,591	539,801		735,612
Other comprehensive earnings (losses)	46,723		(3,440	)	64,324
	$	827,314	536,361		799,936

The provision for income taxes consists of the following:



	Current		Deferred		Total
	(Amounts are in thousands)
2019
Federal	$	504,047	171,422		675,469
State	61,540		43,582		105,122
	$	565,587	215,004		780,591
2018
Federal	$	413,735	59,377		473,112
State	62,821		3,868		66,689
	$	476,556	63,245		539,801
2017
Federal	$	771,355	(113,620	)	657,735
State	64,113		13,764		77,877
	$	835,468	(99,856	)	735,612

A reconciliation of the provision for income taxes at the federal statutory income tax rate of 21% for 2019 and 2018 and 35% for 2017 to earnings before income taxes compared to the Company’s actual income tax expense is as follows:



	2019			2018		2017
	(Amounts are in thousands)
Federal tax at statutory income tax rate	$	795,057		613,403		1,059,627
State income taxes (net of federal tax benefit)	83,046			52,684		50,621
ESOP dividend	(45,493		)	(41,175	)	(65,111	)
Other, net	(52,019		)	(85,111	)	(85,330	)
Remeasurement of deferred income taxes	—			—		(224,195	)
	$	780,591		539,801		735,612

The impact of the reduction of the federal statutory income tax rate decreased the Company’s income tax expense for 2017 by $224,195,000 due to the remeasurement of deferred income taxes. The Company had no incomplete or provisional amounts in the remeasurement of deferred income taxes.

The tax effects of temporary differences that give rise to significant portions of deferred income taxes as of December 28, 2019 and December 29, 2018 are as follows:



	2019			2018
	(Amounts are in thousands)
Deferred tax liabilities and (assets):
Lease assets	$	770,182		—
Property, plant and equipment	671,864			581,290
Investments	176,744			(10,811	)
Inventories	30,398			25,989
Lease liabilities	(781,250		)	(4,662	)
Self-insurance reserves	(80,655		)	(79,467	)
Retirement plan contributions	(46,196		)	(41,424	)
Postretirement benefit cost	(32,064		)	(28,224	)
Purchase allowances	(15,299		)	(11,114	)
Other	(11,240		)	(10,820	)
	$	682,484		420,757

The Company expects the results of future operations and the reversal of deferred tax liabilities to generate sufficient taxable income to allow utilization of deferred tax assets; therefore, no valuation allowance has been recorded as of December 28, 2019 and December 29, 2018.

The Company has analyzed filing positions in all of the federal and state jurisdictions where it is required to file income tax returns as well as all open tax years in these jurisdictions. The periods subject to examination for the Company’s federal income tax returns are the 2016 through 2018 tax years. The periods subject to examination for the Company’s state income tax returns are the 2013 through 2018 tax years. The Company believes that the outcome of any examinations will not have a material effect on its financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

The Company had no unrecognized tax benefits in 2019 and 2018. As a result, there will be no effect on the Company’s effective income tax rate in future periods due to the recognition of unrecognized tax benefits.