XML 25 R13.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v3.20.2
Income Taxes
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes Income Taxes
Income tax provisions for interim periods are based on estimated annual income tax rates, adjusted to reflect the effects of any significant infrequent or unusual items which are required to be discretely recognized within the current interim period. As a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the "2017 Tax Act"), the Company changed its indefinite reversal assertion related to its undistributed earnings of its foreign subsidiaries and no longer considers a majority of its foreign earnings permanently reinvested outside of the United States ("U.S."). As a result, the effective tax rates in the periods presented are largely based upon the forecasted pre-tax earnings mix and allocation of certain expenses in various taxing jurisdictions where the Company conducts its business.

The effective tax rate is as follows:
 Three Months Ended September 30,Nine Months Ended September 30,
In millions2020201920202019
Effective tax rate90.0 %(150.0)%559.3 %— %

For the three months ended September 30, 2020, the Company recorded $9 million of discrete tax benefit, a majority of which related to the adjustment of the marginal tax rate from the second quarter based on revised full-year forecasted earnings. As a result, the Company recorded income tax benefit of $9 million on a pre-tax net loss of $10 million for the three months ended September 30, 2020, resulting in an effective income tax rate of 90.0%.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2020, the Company recorded $122 million of discrete tax benefit. The year to date discrete tax expense of $29 million recorded for marginal tax rate adjustments based on revised full year forecasted earnings was offset by $152 million of discrete tax benefit recorded in the first quarter, a majority of which related to an intra-entity asset transfer of certain of the Company's intellectual property ("IP") to one of its Irish subsidiaries, which occurred on January 1, 2020. As a result, the Company recorded income tax benefit of $151 million on a pre-tax net loss of $27 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2020, resulting in an effective income tax rate of 559.3%.
For the three months ended September 30, 2019, the Company recorded a $5 million discrete tax benefit related to the reversal of an uncertain tax position resulting from the expiration of the statute of limitations.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2019, the $5 million discrete tax benefit was partially offset by $4 million of discrete tax expense recorded in the second quarter related to the reversal of the United States Tax Court’s decision in the Altera Corp. v. Commissioner case by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on June 7, 2019. The Altera case focused on whether current U.S. Treasury Regulations requiring the inclusion of stock-based compensation expense in a taxpayer's cost-sharing calculations are valid. As a result of these discrete items and incremental tax expense related to equity compensation, the Company recorded insignificant income tax expense on
a pre-tax net loss of $1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2019, resulting in an effective income tax rate of zero percent.The Company estimates its annual effective tax rate for 2020 to be approximately 279%, which takes into consideration, among other things, the forecasted earnings mix by jurisdiction, and the impact of discrete tax items to be recognized in 2020, which includes the $157 million of discrete tax benefit recognized in the first quarter of 2020 related to the intra-entity IP transfer described above. The 2017 Tax Act subjects U.S. shareholders to a tax on global intangible low-taxed income ("GILTI") earned by certain foreign subsidiaries. The Company has elected to provide for the tax expense related to GILTI in the year in which the tax is incurred. The Company does not expect a material amount of tax expense related to GILTI based on our forecasted marginal effective tax rate for 2020.