Income Taxes

6 Months Ended

Jan. 31, 2020

7. Income Taxes

Effective Tax Rate

We compute our provision for or benefit from income taxes by applying the estimated annual effective tax rate to income or loss from recurring operations and adding the effects of any discrete income tax items specific to the period.

For the three and six months ended January 31, 2020, we recognized excess tax benefits on share-based compensation of $23 million and $52 million, respectively, in our provision for income taxes. For the three and six months ended January 31, 2019, we recognized excess tax benefits on share-based compensation of $8 million and $49 million, respectively, in our provision for income taxes.

Our effective tax rates for the three and six months ended January 31, 2020 were approximately 15% and 2%, respectively. Excluding discrete tax items primarily related to share-based compensation tax benefits mentioned above, our effective tax rate for both periods was 24%. The difference from the federal statutory rate of 21% was primarily due to state income taxes and non-deductible share-based compensation, which were partially offset by the tax benefit we received from the federal research and experimentation credit.

Our effective tax rate for the three months ended January 31, 2019 was approximately 20%. For the six months ended January 31, 2019 we recorded a tax benefit of $2 million on pretax income of $221 million. Excluding discrete tax items primarily related to share-based compensation tax benefits mentioned above, our effective tax rate for both periods was 23%. The difference from the federal statutory rate of 21% was primarily due to state income taxes and non-deductible share-based compensation, which were partially offset by the tax benefit we received from the federal research and experimentation credit.

Unrecognized Tax Benefits and Other Considerations

The total amount of our unrecognized tax benefits at July 31, 2019 was $120 million. Net of related deferred tax assets, unrecognized tax benefits were $75 million at that date. If we were to recognize these net benefits, our income tax expense would reflect a favorable net impact of $75 million. There were no material changes to these amounts during the six months ended January 31, 2020. We do not believe that it is reasonably possible that there will be a significant increase or decrease in our unrecognized tax benefits over the next 12 months.

We have offset a $52 million long-term income tax receivable against our long term liability for uncertain tax positions at January 31, 2020. The long term income tax receivable is primarily related to the government’s approval of a method of accounting change request for fiscal 2018.