Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2018

An analysis of the provision for income taxes follows:



	Year Ended December 31
	2018			2017			2016
Current income taxes
United States	$	177		$	463		$	523
State	63			52			53
Other countries	229			330			361
Total	469			845			937
Deferred income taxes
United States	16			(68		)	(40		)
State	22			(3		)	31
Other countries	(36		)	2			(6		)
Total	2			(69		)	(15		)
Total provision for income taxes	$	471		$	776		$	922

Income before income taxes is earned in the following tax jurisdictions:



	Year Ended December 31
	2018		2017		2016
United States	$	1,606	$	1,995	$	2,088
Other countries	207		996		921
Total income before income taxes	$	1,813	$	2,991	$	3,009

Deferred income tax assets and liabilities are composed of the following:



	December 31
	2018			2017
Deferred tax assets
Pension and other postretirement benefits	$	252		$	312
Tax credits and loss carryforwards	387			470
Derivatives and unrealized exchange gains and losses	37			63
Other	412			355
	1,088			1,200
Valuation allowances	(220		)	(176		)
Total deferred tax assets	868			1,024

Deferred tax liabilities
Property, plant and equipment, net	789			818
Investments in subsidiaries	102			117
Goodwill	72			83
Other	143			186
Total deferred tax liabilities	1,106			1,204
Net deferred tax assets (liabilities)	$	(238	)	$	(180	)

Presented below is a reconciliation of the income tax provision computed at the U.S. federal statutory tax rate to the actual effective tax rate:



	Year Ended December 31
	2018		2017		2016
U.S. statutory rate applied to income before income taxes	21.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
State income taxes, net of federal tax benefit	3.7		1.1		1.8
Statutory rates other than U.S. statutory rate	0.2		(3.1	)	(2.7	)
Routine tax incentives	(5.4	)	(2.7	)	(4.0	)
Net tax (benefit) cost on foreign income	1.4		(0.7	)	0.1
Net impact of the Tax Act	6.4		(2.5	)	—
Valuation allowance	1.6		(0.1	)	0.2
Other - net^(a)	(2.9	)	(1.1	)	0.2
Effective income tax rate	26.0	%	25.9	%	30.6	%


(a)	Other - net is composed of numerous items, none of which is greater than 1.05 percent and 1.75 percent of income before income taxes in 2018 and 2017- 2016, respectively.

Presented below is a reconciliation of the beginning and ending amounts of unrecognized income tax benefits:



	2018			2017			2016
Balance at January 1	$	354		$	321		$	406
Gross increases for tax positions of prior years	75			50			20
Gross decreases for tax positions of prior years	(86		)	(23		)	(104		)
Gross increases for tax positions of the current year	41			37			39
Settlements	(70		)	(19		)	(29		)
Other	(16		)	(12		)	(11		)
Balance at December 31	$	298		$	354		$	321

As of December 31, 2018, the following tax years remain subject to examination for the major jurisdictions where we conduct business: