v2.4.0.6

Income Taxes Income Taxes (Tables) | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2012
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract] |
Schedule of Components of Income Tax Expense (Benefit) |
| Three Months Ended September 30, |  | Nine Months Ended September 30,
| 2012 |  | 2011 |  | 2012 |  | 2011
Income tax expense (benefit) | $ | 81 |  |  | $ | 20 |  |  | $ | 23 |  |  | $ | (45 | ) | (1 | )
Imputed tax rate | 16 | % |  | 10 | % |  | 19 | % |  | 20 | % |
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(1) | Includes a tax benefit of approximately $76 million related to the election to consolidate our CCFC and Calpine groups for federal income tax reporting purposes for the nine months ended September 30, 2011.
Schedule of Income Tax Expense (Benefit) Intraperiod Tax Allocation | The following table details the effects of our intraperiod tax allocations for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012 and 2011 (in millions):
| Three Months Ended September 30, |  | Nine Months Ended September 30,
| 2012 |  | 2011 |  | 2012 |  | 2011
Intraperiod tax allocation expense included in continuing operations | $ | 3 |  |  | $ | 36 |  |  | $ | 7 |  |  | $ | 20 |
Intraperiod tax allocation benefit included in OCI | $ | (3 | ) |  | $ | (34 | ) |  | $ | (7 | ) |  | $ | (18 | )

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- Definition Tabular disclosure of the components of income tax expense attributable to continuing operations for each year presented including, but not limited to: current tax expense (benefit), deferred tax expense (benefit), investment tax credits, government grants, the benefits of operating loss carryforwards, tax expense that results from allocating certain tax benefits either directly to contributed capital or to reduce goodwill or other noncurrent intangible assets of an acquired entity, adjustments of a deferred tax liability or asset for enacted changes in tax laws or rates or a change in the tax status of the entity, and adjustments of the beginning-of-the-year balances of a valuation allowance because of a change in circumstances that causes a change in judgment about the realizability of the related deferred tax asset in future years. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 740 -SubTopic 10 -Section 50 -Paragraph 9 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6907707&loc=d3e32639-109319 + Details
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