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Income Taxes
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2019
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes Income Taxes
On December 22, 2017, the Tax Act was signed into federal law. The provisions of this major tax reform were generally effective January 1, 2018. Among its significant provisions, the Tax Act reduced the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% and eliminated bonus depreciation for regulated utilities. AWR's effective income tax rate (“ETR”) was 22.6% and 21.2% for the three months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively, and was 21.9% and 20.4% for the six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively. GSWC's ETR was 23.4% and 23.6% for the three months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively, and was 22.2% and 21.9% for the six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively. AWR’s ETR increased because of higher state unitary taxes at AWR (parent).
The AWR and GSWC effective tax rates differ from the federal statutory tax rate primarily due to (i) state taxes, (ii) permanent differences, including the excess tax benefits from share-based payments, which were reflected in the income statements and resulted in a reduction to income tax expense during the three months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018, (iii) the continuing amortization of the excess deferred income tax liability that commenced upon the lowering of the federal tax rate, and (iv) differences between book and taxable income that are treated as flow-through adjustments in accordance with regulatory requirements (principally from plant, rate-case, and compensation expenses). As a regulated utility, GSWC treats certain temporary differences as flow-through in computing its income tax expense consistent with the income tax method used in its CPUC-jurisdiction ratemaking. Flow-through items either increase or decrease tax expense and thus impact the ETR.