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Income Taxes
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes Income Taxes
On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into U.S. federal law the CARES Act, which is aimed at providing emergency assistance and health care for individuals, families and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and generally supporting the U.S. economy. The CARES Act, among other things, includes provisions relating to refundable payroll tax credits, deferment of employer side social security payments, net operating loss carryback periods, alternative minimum tax credit refunds, modifications to the net interest deduction limitations and technical corrections to tax depreciation methods for qualified improvement property. In particular, under the CARES Act, (i) for taxable years beginning before 2021, net operating loss carryforwards and carrybacks may offset 100% of taxable income, (ii) NOLs arising in 2018, 2019, and 2020 taxable years may be carried back to each of the preceding five years to generate a refund and (iii) for taxable years beginning in 2019 and 2020, the base for interest deductibility is increased from 30% to 50% of EBITDA. On April 17, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service issued Revenue Procedure 2020-25, allowing for companies to revoke an election out of bonus depreciation. The Company has analyzed the impact of the CARES Act to determine the effect on 2018 and 2019 filing positions that will be carried back to prior tax years, and recorded a financial statement benefit of $14.8 million.

Historically, the Company calculated its provision for income taxes during interim reporting periods by applying the estimated annual effective tax rate for the full fiscal year to pre-tax income or loss, excluding discrete items, for the reporting period. However, it was determined that since small changes in estimated pre-tax income or loss would result in significant changes in the estimated annual effective tax rate, the historical method would not provide a reliable estimate of income taxes in the third quarter of 2020.

For the nine months ended on September 30, 2020, the Company utilized the discrete effective tax rate method to calculate the interim tax provision. The discrete method treats the year-to-date period as if it were the annual period and determines the income tax expense or benefit on that basis. The discrete method is applied for scenarios where small changes in estimated pre-tax book income would result in significant changes in the estimated annual effective tax rate that may result in an unreliable estimate of income taxes.

For the three months ended September 30, 2020, the Company recorded an income tax benefit of $4.7 million at an effective income tax rate of 188.6%. The annual effective tax rate differs from the statutory U.S. Federal tax rate as the tax benefit from consolidated pre-tax loss is offset by the portion of losses owned by noncontrolling interests that do not provide for a tax benefit, as well as impacts from foreign earnings and non-deductible compensation. These impacts are further offset by tax benefits from net operating loss carrybacks as a result of the CARES Act. The change in effective tax rate for the three months ended September 30, 2020 as compared to the same period last year was primarily attributed to the tax benefit generated from the current period loss before taxes offset by the effect of noncontrolling interest in the discrete effective tax rate, and additional tax benefits from net operating loss carrybacks as a result of the CARES Act. For the three months ended September 30, 2019, the Company recorded an income tax benefit of $7.2 million at an effective income tax rate of 55.1%.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2020, the Company recorded an income tax benefit of $18.4 million at an effective income tax rate of 38.9%. The annual effective tax rate differs from the statutory U.S. Federal tax rate as the tax benefit from consolidated pre-tax losses is offset by the portion of losses owned by noncontrolling interests that do not provide for a tax benefit, as well as impacts from foreign earnings and non-deductible compensation. These impacts are further offset by tax benefits from net operating loss carrybacks as a result of the CARES Act. The increase in effective tax rate for the nine months
ended September 30, 2020 as compared to the same period last year was primarily attributed to the tax benefit generated from the current period loss before taxes offset by the effect of noncontrolling interest in the discrete effective tax rate, and additional tax benefits from net operating loss carrybacks as a result of the CARES Act. For the nine months ended September 30, 2019, the Company recorded an income tax benefit of $1.7 million at an effective income tax rate of 21.4%.  The 2020 effective tax rate can be affected by variances in the estimates and amounts of taxable income among the various states, entities and activity types, realization of tax credits, adjustments from resolution of tax matters under review, valuation allowances and the Company’s assessment of its liability for uncertain tax positions. The amount of unrecognized tax benefits for uncertain tax positions was $31.1 million and $17.7 million as of September 30, 2020 and September 30, 2019, respectively. The unrecognized tax benefits of $31.1 million include $28.6 million recorded as a reduction of the deferred tax asset and refundable credits associated with the R&D Credits.