XML 25 R12.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v3.10.0.1
Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2018
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes
During the first quarters of 2019 and 2018, income tax expense related to continuing operations was $87 million and $95 million. During the first quarter of 2019, no tax benefit was recognized for the pre-tax charge of $570 million to impair the carrying value of goodwill as described in our Financial Note 3, “Goodwill Impairment Charges,” given that this charge is not deductible for income tax purposes. Fluctuations in our reported income tax rates are primarily due to the impact of nondeductible impairment charges as well as changes within our business mix of income and discrete items recognized in the quarter.
On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted comprehensive new tax legislation under the 2017 Tax Act. The SEC Staff issued guidance on income tax accounting for the 2017 Tax Act on December 22, 2017, which allows companies to record provisional amounts during a measurement period not to extend beyond one year of the enactment date. During 2018, in accordance with this guidance, we recognized a provisional tax benefit of $1,324 million due to the re-measurement of certain deferred taxes to the lower U.S. federal tax rate and a provisional tax expense of $457 million for the one-time tax imposed on certain accumulated earnings and profits (“E&P”) of our foreign subsidiaries. During the first quarter of 2019, we have not recognized any incremental adjustments to our provisional amounts. Our accounting for the impact of the 2017 Tax Act is incomplete because we have not yet obtained, prepared, or analyzed all the information needed to finalize the accounting requirement. We will continue to assess the income tax effects of the 2017 Tax Act during the measurement period and record any necessary adjustments in the period such adjustments are identified.
The 2017 Tax Act made broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code that affect our fiscal year 2019 in multiple ways, including but not limited to reducing the U.S. federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent; creating the base erosion anti-abuse tax; creating a new provision designed to tax global intangible low-tax income; and generally eliminating U.S. federal income taxes on dividends from foreign subsidiaries. We have estimated the impact of these changes in our income tax provision for the first quarter of 2019.
As of June 30, 2018, we had $1,178 million of unrecognized tax benefits, of which $1,018 million would reduce income tax expense and the effective tax rate, if recognized. During the first quarter of 2019, we recognized a $20 million discrete tax benefit for the reduction in an unrecognized tax benefit due to applicable administrative guidance issued by the tax authorities. During the next twelve months, we do not anticipate a significant increase or decrease to our unrecognized tax benefits based on the information currently available. However, this amount may change as we continue to have ongoing negotiations with various taxing authorities throughout the year and complete our accounting related to the impact of the 2017 Tax Act.
We file income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction, various U.S. state jurisdictions and various foreign jurisdictions. We are subject to audit by the IRS for fiscal years 2013 through the current fiscal year. We are generally subject to audit by taxing authorities in various U.S. states and in foreign jurisdictions for fiscal years 2010 through the current fiscal year.