Income Taxes

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2022

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

INCOME TAXES The provision/benefit for income taxes represents federal, state and local, and foreign taxes on earnings from continuing operations before income taxes and equity in loss of investee companies. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2022, we recorded a provision for income taxes of $129 million and $163 million, reflecting effective income tax rates of 24.9% and 16.5%, respectively. Included in the provision for income taxes for the second quarter of 2022 is a net discrete tax benefit of $3 million, which together with a net tax benefit of $23 million on other items identified as affecting the comparability of our results during the period, which include a loss on extinguishment of debt and charges for restructuring and other corporate matters, decreased our effective

income tax rate by 0.3 percentage points. The tax provision for the six months ended June 30, 2022 included a net discrete tax benefit of $81 million primarily resulting from the transfer of intangible assets between our subsidiaries in connection with a reorganization of our international operations. This item, together with a net tax benefit of $48 million on other items identified as affecting the comparability of our results during the six-month period, which include a loss on extinguishment of debt, charges for restructuring and other corporate matters, and gains on sales, decreased our effective income tax rate by 7.8 percentage points.

For the three months ended June 30, 2021, we recorded a benefit for income taxes of $34 million, reflecting a negative effective income tax rate of 3.3%, and for the six months ended June 30, 2021, we recorded a provision for income taxes of $192 million, reflecting an effective income tax rate of 8.8%. Included in income taxes for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021 are discrete tax benefits of $268 million and $289 million, respectively, primarily consisting of a benefit of $260 million to remeasure our UK net deferred income tax asset as a result of the enactment during the second quarter of 2021 of an increase in the UK corporate income tax rate from 19% to 25% beginning April 1, 2023, as well as a net tax benefit in connection with the settlement of income tax audits. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, the discrete tax benefit in each period, together with a net tax provision of $26 million and $1 million, respectively, on other items identified as affecting the comparability of our results during the period, which include net gains from sales and investments, and restructuring charges in each period, and a loss on extinguishment of debt in the six-month period, reduced our effective income tax rate by 26.3 percentage points and 13.3 percentage points, respectively.

The Company and its subsidiaries file income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and various state and local and foreign jurisdictions. For periods prior to the merger of Viacom Inc. (“Viacom”) with and into CBS Corporation (“CBS”) (the “Merger”), Viacom and CBS filed separate tax returns. For CBS, we are currently under examination by the IRS for the 2017 and 2018 tax years. For Viacom, we are currently under examination by the IRS for the 2016 through 2019 tax years. Various tax years are also currently under examination by state and local and foreign tax authorities. With respect to open tax years in all jurisdictions, we currently do not believe that it is reasonably possible that the reserve for uncertain tax positions will significantly change within the next 12 months; however, it is difficult to predict the final outcome or timing of resolution of any particular tax matter and events could cause our current expectation to change in the future.