INCOME TAX EXPENSE

6 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2019

The second quarter 2019 effective income tax rate was 12.0% compared to 26.4% in the second quarter of 2018. The income tax expense for the first six months of 2019 was $8.5 million compared to income tax benefit of $18.3 million for the first six months of 2018. The effective income tax rate for the first six months of 2019 was 19.0% compared to (69.3%) for the first six months of 2018. The income tax expense in the second quarter and first six months of 2019 was favorably impacted by tax planning strategies to increase foreign tax credits claimed retrospectively. The Company reduced the valuation allowance for excess foreign tax credits by $2.3 million and recorded an amended return receivable of $0.2 million which favorably impacted the second quarter and year-to-date effective tax rate by 12.1% and 5.8%, respectively.

H.R. 1,

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

(“TCJA”), was signed into law on December 22, 2017. The total impact of the TCJA in the second quarter and first six months of 2018 was a net expense of $0.7 million and a net benefit of $24.4 million, respectively. The impacts were as follows: First, the Company’s 2018 federal statutory rate dropped from 35.0% to 24.5% which required an adjustment to the value of its deferred tax assets and liabilities. This adjustment ($30.3 million provisional amount recorded in Q1) favorably impacted the year-to-date 2018 effective tax rate by 114.9%. Second, the TCJA subjected the Company’s cumulative foreign earnings to federal income tax ($3.6 million provisional amount of which $2.9 million was recorded in the first quarter of 2018 and $0.7 million was recorded in the second quarter of 2018) which unfavorably impacted the second quarter and year-to-date 2018 effective tax rate by 4.9% and 13.6%, respectively.

In the first quarter of 2018, the Company recorded a $2.3 million provisional estimate of the income tax effects of the future repatriation of the cumulative earnings of its foreign subsidiaries which unfavorably impacted the year-to-date effective tax rate by 8.9%. An additional $7.5 million pension contribution for the 2017 plan year was approved during the second quarter of 2018 increasing the value of the deferred tax liability by $1.0 million. This favorable adjustment, net of the $0.3 million unfavorable impact to the 2017 Domestic Production Deduction, favorably impacted the second quarter and year-to-date effective tax rate by 5.8% and 3.0%, respectively. The income tax expense in the second quarter and first six months of 2018 was also unfavorably impacted by the cancellation of debt income triggered by the dissolution of a foreign subsidiary increasing the second quarter and year-to-date effective tax rate by 1.5% and 0.8%, respectively.

Provisions under the TCJA that became effective for the Company in the current fiscal year include a further reduction in the U.S. statutory rate to 21%, a new minimum tax on global intangible low-taxed income (“GILTI”), the benefit of the deduction for foreign-derived intangible income (“FDII”), and changes to IRC Section 162(m) related to the deductibility of executive compensation.