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Income Taxes (Notes)
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2019
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]
INCOME TAXES
The Partnership’s effective tax rate differs from the statutory rate primarily due to partnership earnings that are not subject to United States federal and most state income taxes at the partnership level.
ETC Sunoco historically included certain government incentive payments as taxable income on its federal and state income tax returns. In connection with ETC Sunoco’s 2004 through 2011 years, ETC Sunoco filed amended returns with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) excluding these government incentive payments from federal taxable income. The IRS denied the amended returns and ETC Sunoco petitioned the Court of Federal Claims (“CFC”) on this issue. In November 2016, the CFC ruled against ETC Sunoco, and the Federal Circuit affirmed the CFC’s ruling on November 1, 2018. ETC Sunoco filed a petition for rehearing with the Federal Circuit on December 17, 2018, and this was denied on January 24, 2019. ETC Sunoco filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court that was docketed on May 24, 2019, to review the Federal Circuit’s affirmation of the CFC’s ruling. The government filed its response to ETC Sunoco’s petition on July 24, 2019. The court will consider Sunoco’s petition at its Conference on October 1, 2019, and is likely to act on the petition within October 2019. If the court grants the petition, a decision would be expected by June 2020. The years before the court are 2004 through 2009, and 2010 through 2011 are on extension with the IRS. If ETC Sunoco is ultimately fully successful in this litigation, it will receive tax refunds of approximately $530 million. However, due to the uncertainty surrounding the litigation, a reserve of $530 million was previously established for the full amount of the pending refund claims. Due to the timing of the litigation and the related reserve, the receivable and reserve for this issue have been netted in the balance sheets as of June 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018.