8.	INCOME TAX EXPENSE

Income tax benefit in the first quarter of 2018 was $21.9 million compared to income tax expense of $5.4 million in the first quarter of 2017. The first quarter 2018 effective income tax rate was (170.8%) compared to 33.5% in the first quarter of 2017. H.R. 1, Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”), was signed into law on December 22, 2017. The total impact of the TCJA in the first quarter of 2018 was a net benefit of $25.1 million. The impacts were as follows: First, the Company’s 2018 federal statutory rate dropped from 35.0% to 24.5% which requires an adjustment to the value of its deferred tax assets and liabilities since the first quarter of 2018 is the period that includes the enactment date. This adjustment ($30.3 million provisional amount) favorably impacted the first quarter effective tax rate by 236.8%. Second, the TCJA subjects the Company’s cumulative foreign earnings to federal income tax ($2.9 million provisional amount) which unfavorably impacted the first quarter effective tax rate by 22.8%. The Company also recorded a $2.3 million provisional estimate of the income tax effects of the future repatriation of the cumulative earnings of its foreign subsidiaries which unfavorably impacted the first quarter effective tax rate by 18.3%.

Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 (SAB 118) was issued by the SEC effective December 22, 2017. SAB 118 allows registrants to record provisional amounts of the income tax effects of the TCJA where the information necessary to complete the accounting under ASC Topic 740 is not available but the amounts are based on reasonable estimates. SAB 118 permits registrants to record adjustments to its provisional amounts during the measurement period (which cannot exceed one year).

The Company was able to determine reasonable estimates of the TCJA income tax effects. However, the Company was unable to complete the accounting under ASC Topic 740 for the change in the value of the Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities as it needs more time to collect and analyze information primarily related to depreciation expense, pension liability, and percentage of completion revenue recognition. The Company was also unable to complete the accounting under ASC Topic 740 for the income tax effects of subjecting the Company’s cumulative foreign earnings to federal income tax as it needs more time to collect and analyze information to compute the cumulative balance of earnings subject to the tax and the amount of foreign tax credit that is available to offset the tax.

Since the TCJA subjected the Company’s cumulative foreign earnings to U.S. tax, repatriation of those earnings generally provides that no additional federal tax will be imposed. However, the permissible amount of repatriation can be restricted by local law and a repatriation can result in tax expense due to local country withholding tax, U.S. state tax, and changes in foreign exchange rates. The Company is evaluating these considerations to determine the amount of its foreign subsidiaries’ cumulative earnings it intends to indefinitely reinvest.

The TCJA includes a tax on global intangible low-taxed income (“GILTI”). The Company expects it will be subject to this tax. At its January 10, 2018 meeting, the FASB staff indicated that companies should make and disclose a policy election as to whether they will recognize deferred taxes for basis differences expected to reverse as GILTI or whether they will account for GILTI as period costs if and when incurred. Because there are interpretative questions associated with the approach that involves recognizing deferred taxes, the Company will undertake an evaluation of these questions and make the accounting policy election during the SAB 118 measurement period.