On August 6, 2019, Switzerland published changes to its Federal tax law in the Official Federal Collection of Laws. On September 27, 2019, the Zurich Canton published their decision on the September 1, 2019 Zurich Canton public vote regarding the Cantonal changes associated with the Swiss Federal tax law change. The intent of these tax law changes was to replace certain preferential tax regimes with a new set of internationally accepted measures that are hereafter referred to as "Swiss tax reform". Based on these Federal/Cantonal events, it is our position that enactment of Swiss tax reform for U.S. GAAP purposes was met as of September 30, 2019, and we recorded the impacts in the third quarter of 2019. The net impact was a benefit of $767 million, which consisted of a $769 million reduction in deferred tax expense from an allowed step-up of intangible assets for tax purposes (recorded net of valuation allowance) and remeasurement of our deferred tax balances, partially offset by a $2 million indirect tax impact in selling, general and administrative expenses. The ongoing impacts of these Swiss tax reform law changes became effective January 1, 2020. We continue to monitor interpretative guidance on Swiss tax reform that could result in changes to the amounts we have recorded.

On December 22, 2017, U.S. tax reform legislation ("U.S. tax reform") was enacted that included a broad range of complex provisions impacting the taxation of businesses. We finalized our accounting for the new provisions during the fourth quarter of 2018. U.S. tax reform resulted in a total transition tax liability of $1.3 billion based on the deemed repatriation of our accumulated foreign earnings and profits, which will be paid in installments through 2026.


	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2020		2019		2018
	(in millions)
Earnings/(losses) from continuing operations before income taxes:
United States	$	514	$	751	$	(170)
Outside United States	2,869		2,696		3,012
	$	3,383	$	3,447	$	2,842
Provision for income taxes:
United States federal:
Current	$	440	$	145	$	(34)
Deferred	(82)		97		171
	358		242		137
State and local:
Current	98		29		23
Deferred	(7)		45		61
	91		74		84
Total United States	449		316		221

Outside United States:
Current	756		459		552
Deferred	19		(773)		—
Total outside United States	775		(314)		552

Total provision for income taxes	$	1,224	$	2	$	773


	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2020		2019		2018
U.S. federal statutory rate	21.0	%	21.0	%	21.0	%
Increase/(decrease) resulting from:
State and local income taxes, net of federal tax benefit	1.6	%	1.3	%	0.4	%
Foreign rate differences	1.1	%	0.2	%	(1.9)	%
Changes in judgment on realizability of deferred tax assets	(2.2)	%	(0.3)	%	(0.4)	%
Reversal of other tax accruals no longer required	(0.8)	%	(3.0)	%	(1.8)	%
Tax accrual on investment in KDP (including tax impact share sales)	6.7	%	0.8	%	8.4	%
Excess tax benefits from equity compensation	(1.0)	%	(1.2)	%	(0.8)	%
Tax legislation (non-U.S. and non-Swiss tax reform)	1.0	%	0.4	%	0.3	%
Swiss tax reform	—		(22.3)	%	—
Business sales (including tax impact from JDE Peet's transaction)	7.4	%	—		—
U.S. tax reform - transition tax	—		0.1	%	(1.3)	%
U.S. tax reform - changes in indefinite reinvestment assertion	—		—		2.1	%
Foreign tax provisions under TCJA (GILTI, FDII and BEAT)(1)	1.1	%	2.5	%	1.1	%
Other	0.3	%	0.6	%	0.1	%
Effective tax rate	36.2	%	0.1	%	27.2	%

(1)The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 ("TCJA") established the Global Intangible Low-Tax Income ("GILTI") provision, which taxes U.S. allocated expenses and certain income from foreign operations; the Foreign-Derived Intangible Income ("FDII") provision, which allows a deduction against certain types of U.S. taxable income resulting in a lower effective U.S. tax rate on such income; and the Base Erosion Anti-abuse Tax ("BEAT"), which is a minimum tax based on cross-border service payments by U.S. entities.

Our 2020 effective tax rate of 36.2% was high due to the $452 million net tax expense incurred in connection with the JDE Peet's transaction and four KDP share sales that occurred during 2020 (the related gains were reported as gains on equity method investments). Excluding these impacts, our effective tax rate was 22.8%, which reflects unfavorable provisions from U.S. tax reform and taxes on earnings from equity method investments (these earnings are reported separately on our consolidated statements of earnings and not within earnings before income taxes), largely offset by favorable impacts from the mix of pre-tax income in various non-U.S. jurisdictions and discrete net tax benefits of $119 million. The discrete net benefits were primarily driven by the $70 million net benefit from the release of the China valuation allowance and a $50 million net benefit from the release of liabilities for uncertain tax positions due to expirations of statutes of limitations and audit settlements in several jurisdictions.

Our 2019 effective tax rate of 0.1% was significantly impacted by the $769 million net deferred tax benefit related to Swiss tax reform in the third quarter of 2019. Excluding this impact, our 2019 effective tax rate was 22.4%, which reflects unfavorable provisions from U.S. tax reform and taxes on earnings from equity method investments (these earnings are reported separately on our consolidated statements of earnings and not within earnings before income taxes), largely offset by favorable impacts from the mix of pre-tax income in various non-U.S. jurisdictions and discrete net tax benefits of $176 million. The discrete net tax benefits were primarily driven by a $128 million net benefit from the release of liabilities for uncertain tax positions due to expirations of statutes of limitations and audit settlements in several jurisdictions.

Our 2018 effective tax rate of 27.2% was unfavorably impacted by net tax expenses from $128 million of discrete one-time events as well as unfavorable provisions within U.S. tax reform legislation and taxes on earnings from equity method investments (these earnings are reported separately on our consolidated statements of earnings and not within earnings before income taxes), partially offset by the favorable mix of pre-tax income in various non-U.S. tax jurisdictions. The discrete net tax expenses included a $192 million deferred tax expense related to a $778 million gain on the KDP transaction reported as a gain on equity method investment as well as $19 million expense from the final updates to the provisional impacts from U.S. tax reform reported as of 2017 year-end, partially offset by an $81 million benefit from favorable audit settlements and statutes of limitations in various jurisdictions.


	As of December 31,
	2020		2019
	(in millions)
Deferred income tax assets:
Accrued postretirement and postemployment benefits	$	137	$	150
Accrued pension costs	251		272
Other employee benefits	151		160
Accrued expenses	420		287
Loss carryforwards	648		589
Tax credit carryforwards	790		729
Other	535		438
Total deferred income tax assets	2,932		2,625
Valuation allowance	(1,277)		(1,243)
Net deferred income tax assets	$	1,655	$	1,382
Deferred income tax liabilities:
Intangible assets, including impact from Swiss tax reform	$	(2,951)	$	(2,772)
Property, plant and equipment	(747)		(663)
Other	(513)		(559)
Total deferred income tax liabilities	(4,211)		(3,994)
Net deferred income tax liabilities	$	(2,556)	$	(2,612)

Our significant valuation allowances are in the U.S. and Switzerland. The U.S. valuation allowance relates to excess foreign tax credits generated by the deemed repatriation under U.S. tax reform while the Swiss valuation allowance brings the allowed step-up of intangible assets recorded under Swiss tax reform to the amount more likely than not to be realized.

The unremitted earnings as of December 31, 2020 in those subsidiaries where we continue to be indefinitely reinvested is approximately $1.6 billion. We currently have not recognized approximately $73 million of deferred tax liabilities related to those unremitted earnings. Future tax law changes or changes in the needs of our non-U.S. subsidiaries could require us to recognize deferred tax liabilities on a portion, or all, of our accumulated earnings that are currently indefinitely reinvested.


	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2020		2019		2018
	(in millions)
January 1	$	426	$	516	$	579
Increases from positions taken during prior periods	35		27		36
Decreases from positions taken during prior periods	(17)		(35)		(43)
Increases from positions taken during the current period	48		50		57
Decreases relating to settlements with taxing authorities	(27)		(64)		(45)
Reductions resulting from the lapse of the applicable statute of limitations	(29)		(64)		(31)
Currency/other	6		(4)		(37)
December 31	$	442	$	426	$	516

As of January 1, 2020, our unrecognized tax benefits were $426 million. If we had recognized all of these benefits, the net impact on our income tax provision would have been $364 million. Our unrecognized tax benefits were $442 million at December 31, 2020, and if we had recognized all of these benefits, the net impact on our income tax provision would have been $369 million. Within the next 12 months, our unrecognized tax benefits could increase by approximately $30 million due to unfavorable audit developments or decrease by approximately $70 million due to audit settlements and the expiration of statutes of limitations in various jurisdictions. We include accrued interest and penalties related to uncertain tax positions in our tax provision. We had accrued interest and penalties of $170 million as of January 1, 2020 and $170 million as of December 31, 2020. Our 2020 provision for income taxes included $11 million expense for interest and penalties.

Our income tax filings are regularly examined by federal, state and non-U.S. tax authorities. U.S. federal, state and non-U.S. jurisdictions have statutes of limitations generally ranging from three to five years; however, these statutes are often extended by mutual agreement with the tax authorities. The earliest year still open to examination by U.S. federal and state tax authorities is 2016 and years still open to examination by non-U.S. tax authorities in major jurisdictions include (earliest open tax year in parentheses): China (2010), France (2015), India (2005), the United Kingdom (2015) and Switzerland (2014).