5.	Income Taxes

For the three months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016 we recorded $77.8 million and $63.7 million of income tax expense and had an effective tax rate of 35.9% and 34.8%, respectively. The increase in our effective tax rate for the three months ended September 30, 2017 compared with the same period in 2016, was primarily due to an internal legal entity consolidation that will simplify future operating activities and resulted in $3.3 million of tax expense for the change in value of deferred taxes.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016, we recorded $204.9 million and $181.0 million of income tax expense and had an effective tax rate of 33.9% and 34.8%, respectively. The decrease in our effective tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 compared with the same period in 2016, was primarily due to the adoption of ASU 2016-09 (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting, which requires all excess tax benefits and deficiencies from employee share-based payment awards to be recognized in the income statement as opposed to additional paid in capital. This was partially offset by the tax expense from the internal legal entity consolidation.

Our effective tax rate may differ from the federal statutory income tax rate of 35.0%, due primarily to the effect of employee share-based payment awards, the domestic manufacturing deduction, and state and local income taxes.

During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 there were no significant changes to our uncertain tax positions. For more information, see Note 6, Income Taxes, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in “Part II, Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of our 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016 cash paid for taxes, net of refunds received, was $208.3 million and $158.8 million, respectively.