Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

INCOME TAXES

Geographic sources of FCX’s (provision for) benefit from income taxes follow (in millions):


	Nine Months Ended
	September 30,
	2021			2020
U.S. operations	$	(7)		$	56	a
International operations	(1,667)		b	(389)		c
Total	$	(1,674)		$	(333)

a.Includes a tax credit of $53 million associated with the reversal of a year-end 2019 tax charge related to the sale of FCX’s interest in the lower zone of the Timok exploration project in Serbia.

b.Includes net tax benefits totaling $83 million ($66 million net of noncontrolling interest), consisting of $69 million associated with the release of a portion of the valuation allowances recorded against PT Rio Tinto Indonesia (PT RTI), PT-FI’s wholly owned subsidiary, net operating losses (NOLs) and $24 million primarily associated with the reversal of a tax reserve related to the treatment of prior year contractor support costs; partly offset by a tax charge of $10 million associated with the audit of PT-FI's 2019 tax returns.

c.Includes a tax charge of $21 million ($17 million net of noncontrolling interests) associated with establishing a tax reserve related to the treatment of prior year contractor support costs.

FCX’s consolidated effective income tax rate was 29 percent for the first nine months of 2021 and 102 percent for the first nine months of 2020. Because FCX's U.S. jurisdiction generated pre-tax losses for the first nine months of 2020 that did not result in a realized tax benefit, applicable accounting rules required FCX to adjust its 2020 estimated annual effective tax rate to exclude the impact of U.S. pre-tax losses. Variations in the relative proportions of jurisdictional income result in fluctuations to FCX’s consolidated effective income tax rate.

As discussed in Note 8, Cerro Verde paid the balance of its royalty dispute liabilities during third-quarter 2021, which resulted in a $252 million reduction of unrecognized tax benefits (including a $137 million reduction of accrued interest and penalties), but did not have an impact on FCX’s provision for income taxes for the third quarter or nine months ended September 30, 2021.

In connection with the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy, governments throughout the world announced measures that are intended to provide tax and other financial relief. Such measures include the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, enacted on March 11, 2021, and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), enacted on March 27, 2020. None of these measures resulted in material impacts to FCX’s provision for income taxes for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020. However, certain provisions of the CARES Act provided FCX with the opportunity to accelerate collections of tax refunds, primarily those associated with the U.S. alternative minimum tax. FCX collected U.S. alternative minimum tax credit refunds of $23 million in March 2021, $24 million in October 2020 and $221 million in July 2020. FCX continues to evaluate income tax accounting considerations of COVID-19 measures as they develop, including any impact on its measurement of existing deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities. FCX will recognize any impact from COVID-19 related changes to tax laws in the period in which the new legislation is enacted.

As previously disclosed in our 2020 Form 10-K, PT-FI received unfavorable Indonesia Tax Court decisions in 2018 with respect to its appeal of capitalized mine development costs on its 2012 and 2014 corporate income tax returns. PT-FI appealed those decisions to the Indonesia Supreme Court. On October 31, 2019, the Indonesia Supreme Court communicated an unfavorable ruling regarding the treatment of mine development costs on PT-FI’s 2014 tax return. During the fourth quarter of 2019, PT-FI met with the Indonesia Tax Office and developed a framework for resolution of the disputed matters and progress of the framework for resolution continued in 2020 and through the nine months ended September 30, 2021.

During October 2021, PT-FI participated in discussions with the Indonesian tax office regarding progress on the framework for resolution of disputes arising from the audits of tax years 2012 through 2016. As a result of these discussions and the revised positions taken by both the Indonesian tax office and PT-FI, FCX believes it can no longer conclude a resolution of all of the disputed tax items at a more-likely-than-not threshold. Because of these recent events, FCX continues to evaluate its uncertain tax positions and may record a material tax charge during fourth-quarter 2021. This tax charge may be offset by a tax benefit related to the additional release of valuation allowance associated with PT Rio Tinto net operating loss carryforwards that PT-FI may deem realizable. PT-FI will

continue to engage with the Indonesian tax office in pursuit of certain aspects of the original framework for resolution.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for income taxes. Disclosures may include net deferred tax liability or asset recognized in an enterprise's statement of financial position, net change during the year in the total valuation allowance, approximate tax effect of each type of temporary difference and carryforward that gives rise to a significant portion of deferred tax liabilities and deferred tax assets, utilization of a tax carryback, and tax uncertainties information.

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