Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

INCOME TAXES

The Company uses a full year projected effective tax rate approach to calculate year-to-date taxes. In addition, certain items impacting total income tax expense are recorded in the periods in which they occur. The projected effective tax rate is the ratio of projected “Income tax expense (benefit)” divided by projected “Income (loss) from operations before income taxes”. The interim period tax expense (or benefit) is the difference between the year-to-date income tax provision and the amounts reported for the previous interim periods of the fiscal year.

The Company's income tax provision amounted to an income tax benefit of $(237) million, or 22.44% of income (loss) from operations before income taxes in the first three months of 2020, compared to an income tax expense of $21 million, or (2.37)%, in the first three months of 2019. The Company’s current and prior effective tax rates differed from the U.S. statutory tax rate of 21% primarily due to non-taxable investment income and tax credits.

On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”) was enacted into law. The CARES Act includes temporary changes to income tax laws, some of which were enacted under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017. For interim reporting, income tax effects of new legislation are recognized in the interim period which includes the enactment date. One of the key provisions is to allow companies with net operating losses originating in 2018, 2019 or 2020 to carry back those losses for five years. However, this provision is elective and the Company is still in the process of evaluating the temporary tax law changes and its overall effect, including the sequencing of and interaction between its provisions and other federal tax laws. As a result, the tax provision for the first quarter of 2020 does not include any estimate for the impact of these changes.