Income Tax

The Company's effective tax rates differed from the applicable U.S. federal income tax statutory rates of 21% and 35% as a result of the following for the three and six months ended June 30, 2018 and 2017, respectively (dollars in thousands):



	Three months ended June 30,						Six months ended June 30,
	2018			2017			2018			2017
Tax provision at U.S. statutory rate	$	51,931		$	118,760		$	80,895		$	191,506
Increase (decrease) in income taxes resulting from:
U.S. Tax Reform provisional adjustments	(4,314		)	—			(3,539		)	—
Foreign tax rate differing from U.S. tax rate	(330		)	(4,261		)	1,103			(10,413		)
Differences in tax bases in foreign jurisdictions	(1,132		)	(13,375		)	(6,892		)	(16,759		)
Deferred tax valuation allowance	3,079			13,031			10,501			14,213
Amounts related to tax audit contingencies	(2,036		)	(1,783		)	(1,201		)	(1,172		)
Corporate rate changes	145			44			417			(1,193		)
Subpart F	(348		)	1,140			310			1,326
Foreign tax credits	113			(1,938		)	(459		)	(2,064		)
Global intangible low-taxed income, net of credit	(119		)	—			4,291			—
Equity compensation excess benefit	(3,135		)	(2,609		)	(4,250		)	(4,464		)
Return to provision adjustments	(503		)	(633		)	(139		)	(403		)
Other, net	(437		)	(1,251		)	(428		)	(1,120		)
Total provision for income taxes	$	42,914		$	107,125		$	80,609		$	169,457
Effective tax rate	17.4		%	31.6		%	20.9		%	31.0		%

On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“U.S. Tax Reform”) was signed into law. U.S. Tax Reform makes broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code, including but not limited to, (1) reducing the U.S. federal corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%; (2) requiring companies to pay a one-time transition tax on certain unrepatriated earnings of foreign subsidiaries; (3) generally eliminating U.S. federal income taxes on dividends from foreign subsidiaries; (4) eliminating the corporate alternative minimum tax (“AMT”) and changing how existing AMT credits can be realized; (5) creating the base erosion anti-abuse tax (“BEAT”), a new minimum tax; (6) establishing a new provision designed to tax global intangible low-taxed income (“GILTI”), which allows for the possibility of using foreign tax credits and a deduction of up to 50 percent to offset the income tax liability (subject to some limitations); and (7) changing rules related to uses and limitations of net operating loss carryforwards created in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017.

Companies subject to GILTI have the option to account for the GILTI tax as a period cost if and when incurred, or to recognize deferred taxes for temporary differences including outside basis differences expected to reverse as GILTI. The Company has not yet made a policy election to account for GILTI, but included an estimate of the current GILTI impact in the tax provision.

As of June 30, 2018, the Company has not yet completed its accounting for the tax effects of the enactment of U.S. Tax Reform. The Company continues to gather additional information to account for the effects of U.S. Tax Reform such as information to more precisely compute the pretax deferred tax items upon which the change in rate was applied and refine the necessary valuation allowance. The Company also continues to monitor the issuance of new guidance in the form of Treasury Regulations which could impact the provisional balances recorded as of December 31, 2017.

The Company continues to evaluate the effects of the BEAT and is currently restructuring existing business flows to reduce the risk that the Company will be subject to the BEAT for 2018. The Company has estimated that the annual deductible payments to foreign affiliates as a percentage of annual estimated total deductions to be below the threshold for application of the BEAT; therefore, the Company has not established an additional BEAT liability as of June 30, 2018.

The effective tax rates for the second quarter and first six months of 2018 were lower than the U.S. Statutory rate of 21.0% primarily as a result of U.S. Tax Reform related adjustments, the effective settlement of an uncertain tax position, benefits from differences in bases in foreign jurisdictions and excess tax benefits related to equity compensation. These benefits were partially offset by valuation allowances established on losses in foreign jurisdictions. The effective tax rates for the second quarter and first six months of 2017 were lower than the U.S. Statutory rate of 35% primarily as a result of tax benefits from income in non-U.S. jurisdictions, mostly related to RGA Life Reinsurance Company of Canada and the United Kingdom Branch of RGA International Reinsurance Company dac, with statutory rates of 26.6% and 19.3%, respectively. Further, tax benefits derived from differences in tax bases in foreign jurisdictions and benefits related to the filing of an amended tax return also lowered the effective tax rate. These benefits were partially offset with a valuation allowance established related to the amended return filing.