Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2018

The provision for income taxes consists of the following (dollars in millions):

A reconciliation of the federal statutory rate to the effective income tax rate follows:


	2018			2017			2016
Federal statutory rate		21.0	%		35.0	%		35.0	%
State income taxes, net of federal tax benefit		2.9			2.2			2.1
Change in liability for uncertain tax positions		(0.1	)		—			(1.0	)
Tax benefit from settlements of employee equity awards		(2.4	)		(2.0	)		(3.6	)
Impact of Tax Act on deferred tax balances		(1.6	)		7.8			—
Other items, net		0.2			(0.5	)		(0.2	)

Effective income tax rate on income attributable to HCA Healthcare, Inc.		20.0			42.5			32.3
Income attributable to noncontrolling interests from consolidated partnerships		(2.3	)		(5.1	)		(3.6	)

Effective income tax rate on income before income taxes		17.7	%		37.4	%		28.7	%

A summary of the items comprising the deferred tax assets and liabilities at December 31 follows (dollars in millions):


	2018				2017
	Assets		Liabilities		Assets		Liabilities
Depreciation and fixed asset basis differences	$	—	$	340	$	—	$	260
Allowances for professional liability and other risks		355		—		345		—
Accounts receivable		274		—		243		—
Compensation		256		—		263		—
Other		424		491		420		501

	$	1,309	$	831	$	1,271	$	761

The following table summarizes the activity related to our unrecognized tax benefits (dollars in millions):


	2018			2017
Balance at January 1	$	399		$	377
Additions based on tax positions related to the current year		22			40
Additions for tax positions of prior years		10			11
Reductions for tax positions of prior years		(14	)		(13	)
Settlements		(2	)		—
Lapse of applicable statutes of limitations		(25	)		(16	)

Balance at December 31	$	390		$	399