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Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes    

The three month effective tax rate was 49.2% as compared to 28.7% for the prior year comparative period. On December 22, 2017, H.R. 1, formally known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the Act) was enacted into law. The Act provides for numerous significant tax law changes and modifications with varying effective dates, which include reducing the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, creating a territorial tax system (with a mandatory transition tax on previously deferred foreign earnings) and allowing for immediate capital expensing of certain qualified property. As a fiscal year end taxpayer, certain provisions of the Act will begin to impact us in our fiscal first quarter ended December 31, 2017, while other provisions will impact us beginning in fiscal year 2019. The corporate tax rate reduction is effective for Energizer as of January 1, 2018 and, accordingly, will reduce our current fiscal year federal statutory rate to a blended rate of approximately 24.5% for fiscal year 2018.

The changes included in the Act are broad and complex. The final transition impacts of the Act may differ from our current estimates, possibly materially, due to, among other things, changes in interpretations of the Act, any legislative action to address questions that arise because of the Act, any changes in accounting standards for income taxes or related interpretations in response to the Act, or any updates or changes to estimates the Company has utilized to calculate the transition impacts, including impacts from changes to current year earnings estimates and foreign exchange rates of foreign subsidiaries. The Securities Exchange Commission has issued rules that would allow for a measurement period of up to one year after the enactment date of the Act to finalize the recording of the related tax impacts.

As a result of the reduction of the Federal corporate income tax rate, we have remeasured certain deferred tax assets and liabilities at the rate which they are expected to reverse in the future. We are still analyzing certain aspects of the Act, including the future impacts of the Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income provision, and refining our calculations, which could potentially affect the remeasurement of these balances or potentially give rise to new deferred tax amounts. The provisional amount recorded related to the remeasurement of our deferred tax balance was tax expense of approximately $1.
The mandatory transition tax is based on our total post-1986 earnings and profits (E&P) that we previously deferred from U.S. income taxes. We recorded a provisional amount for our mandatory transition tax liability, resulting in an increase in income tax expense of approximately $30. We have not yet completed our calculation of the total post-1986 E&P for these foreign subsidiaries. Further, the mandatory transition tax is based in part on the amount of those earnings held in cash and other specified assets. This amount may change when we finalize the calculation of post-1986 foreign E&P previously deferred from U.S federal taxation and finalize the amounts held in cash or other specified assets. No additional income taxes have been provided for any remaining undistributed foreign earnings not subject to the mandatory transition tax, or any additional outside basis difference inherent in these entities, as these amounts continue to be indefinitely reinvested in foreign operations.