5. Income Taxes

Our provision for income taxes and the related effective income tax rates are as follows (in millions):



	Three Months Ended
	March 31,
	2019		2018

Provision for income taxes	$	(76)	$	(124)
Effective tax rate		13.2%		26.7%

For the three months ended March 31, 2019, the effective income tax rate differed from the U.S. statutory rate of 21% primarily due to the following:

Rate differences on income (loss) of consolidated foreign companies offset by;

Expected benefits related to foreign derived intangible income (“FDII”); and

The release of foreign valuation allowances on deferred tax assets that are now considered realizable from the restructuring of certain Israeli operations.

For the three months ended March 31, 2018, the effective income tax rate differed from the U.S. statutory rate of 21% primarily due to the following:

Additional tax expense of $172 million related to a preliminary agreement with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) to settle the income tax audit for the years 2013 and 2014; and

A reduction in the tax benefit from domestic losses attributable to foreign exchange and losses on translated earnings contracts due to the anticipated impacts of the base erosion and anti-deferral tax (“BEAT”).