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Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2018
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes

As previously discussed in the Company's 2017 Form 10-K, the 2017 Tax Act was signed into law in December 2017, reducing the corporate federal tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent for tax years beginning in 2018. ASC 740, "Income Taxes," requires deferred tax assets and liabilities to be measured at the enacted tax rate expected to apply when temporary differences are to be realized and settled. Entities subject to ASC 980, "Accounting for Regulated Entities," such as OG&E, are required to recognize a regulatory liability for the decrease in taxes payable for the change in tax rates that are expected to be returned to customers through future rates and to recognize a regulatory asset for the increase in taxes receivable for the change in tax rates that are expected to be recovered from customers through future rates. At December 31, 2017, as a result of remeasuring existing deferred taxes at the lower 21 percent tax rate, the Company reduced net deferred income tax liabilities and increased regulatory liabilities. As of March 31, 2018, the Company's regulatory liability for income taxes refundable to customers, net was $951.3 million, as disclosed in Note 1.

Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 addresses the application of U.S. GAAP in situations when a registrant does not have the necessary information available, prepared or analyzed (including computations) in reasonable detail to complete the accounting for certain income tax effects of the 2017 Tax Act. The Company recognized the provisional tax impacts related to the revaluation of deferred tax assets and liabilities as of December 31, 2017. The ultimate impact may differ from those provisional amounts, possibly materially, due to, among other things, additional analysis, changes in interpretations and assumptions the Company has made, additional regulatory guidance that may be issued and the actions the Company may take as a result of the 2017 Tax Act. The Company continues to evaluate its computations, and any subsequent adjustments to the amounts recognized as of December 31, 2017 will be recorded in the quarter when the analysis is complete.

As a result of the 2017 Tax Act: (i) the OCC ordered OG&E to record a reserve, which should include accrued interest, to reflect the reduced federal corporate tax rate, among other tax implications, on an interim basis, subject to refund until utility rates are adjusted to reflect the federal tax savings and a final order is issued in OG&E's pending rate review filed in January 2018; (ii) the APSC ordered OG&E to book regulatory liabilities to record the current and deferred impacts of the 2017 Tax Act and will subsequently order how any resulting benefits, including carrying charges, should be returned to customers; and (iii) through a Section 206 filing with the FERC, modifications were requested to be made to OG&E's transmission formula rates to reflect the impacts of the 2017 Tax Act. OG&E is reserving the excess income taxes collected in current rates, plus interest, starting in January 2018 until the date of an order received from the OCC, APSC and FERC; as of March 31, 2018, the total recorded reserve was $6.5 million. Further discussion can be found in Note 14.

The Company files consolidated income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction and various state jurisdictions. With few exceptions, the Company is no longer subject to U.S. federal tax examinations by tax authorities for years prior to 2014 or state and local tax examinations by tax authorities for years prior to 2013Income taxes are generally allocated to each company in the affiliated group based on its stand-alone taxable income or loss. Federal investment tax credits previously claimed on electric utility property have been deferred and are being amortized to income over the life of the related property. OG&E earns both federal and Oklahoma state tax credits associated with production from its wind farms and earns Oklahoma state tax credits associated with its investments in electric generating facilities which further reduce the Company's effective tax rate.