9.	INCOME TAX EXPENSE

The second quarter 2018 effective income tax rate was 26.4% compared to 33.7% in the second quarter of 2017. The income tax benefit for the first six months of 2018 was $18.3 million compared to income tax expense of $11.1 million for the first six months of 2017. The effective income tax rate for the first six months of 2018 was (69.3%) compared to 33.6% for the first six months 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 second quarter and first six months of 2018 was a net expense of $0.7 million and a net benefit of $24.4 million, respectively. The impacts were as follows: First, the Company’s 2018 federal statutory rate decreased from 35.0% to 24.5% which required an adjustment to the value of its deferred tax assets and liabilities. This adjustment ($30.3 million provisional amount recorded in the first quarter of 2018) favorably impacted the year-to-date effective tax rate by 114.9%. Second, the TCJA subjected the Company’s cumulative foreign earnings to federal income tax ($3.6 million provisional amount of which $2.9 million was recorded in the first quarter of 2018 and $0.7 million was recorded in the second quarter of 2018) which unfavorably impacted the second quarter and year-to-date effective tax rate by 4.9% and 13.6%, respectively.

In the first quarter of 2018, the Company 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 year-to-date effective tax rate by 8.9%. An additional $7.5 million pension contribution for the 2017 plan year was approved increasing the value of the deferred tax liability by $1.0 million (provisional amount). This favorable adjustment, net of the $0.3 million unfavorable impact to the 2017 Domestic Production Deduction, favorably impacted the second quarter and year-to-date effective tax rate by 5.8% and 3.0%, respectively. The income tax expense in the second quarter and first six months of 2018 was also unfavorably impacted by the cancellation of debt income triggered by the dissolution of a foreign subsidiary increasing the second quarter and year-to-date effective tax rate by 1.5% and 0.8%, respectively.

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).

In the first quarter of 2018, the Company recorded reasonable estimates of the TCJA income tax effects. In the second quarter of 2018, 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 (see provisional adjustment described above), and percentage of completion revenue recognition. The accounting for these items will be completed within the allotted measurement period. During the second quarter of 2018, the Company collected and analyzed some of the additional information needed 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 and as described above recorded an adjustment of $0.7 million. This amount remains provisional as the Company needs more time to collect and analyze the remaining 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 is in the process of evaluating and will make the accounting policy election during the SAB 118 measurement period.