XML 31 R13.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v3.19.3
Income taxes
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2019
Income taxes  
Income taxes

8. Income taxes

On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted comprehensive tax legislation commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”). The Tax Act makes broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code, including, but not limited to, the following that impact us: (1) reducing the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent; (2) eliminating the corporate alternative minimum tax (“AMT”) and changing how existing AMT credits can be realized; (3) creating a new limitation on deductible interest expense; (4) repealing the domestic production activities deduction; (5) limiting the deductibility of certain executive compensation; and (6) limiting certain other deductions.

The SEC staff issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 (“SAB 118”), which provides guidance on accounting for the tax effects of the Tax Act. SAB 118 provides for a measurement period that should not extend beyond one year from the Tax Act enactment date for companies to complete the accounting relating to the Tax Act under ASC 740. In accordance with SAB 118, a company must reflect the income tax effects of those aspects of the Tax Act for which the accounting under ASC 740 is complete. To the extent that a company’s accounting for certain income tax effects of the Tax Act is incomplete but it is able to determine a reasonable estimate, it must record a provisional estimate in its financial statements. If a company cannot determine a provisional estimate to be included in its financial statements, it should continue to apply ASC 740 on the basis of the provisions of the tax laws that were in effect immediately before the enactment of the Tax Act.

As a result of our initial analysis of the impact of the Tax Act, we recorded a provisional amount of net tax benefit of $11.5 million in 2017 related to the remeasurement of our deferred tax balance and other effects. We completed our accounting for the income tax effects of the Tax Act in 2018, and no material adjustments were required to the provisional amounts initially recorded.