Income Taxes |
3 Months Ended |
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Mar. 31, 2018 | |
| Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract] | |
| Income Taxes |
Income Taxes
Our effective tax rate was 25.1% and 38.0% for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. The decrease in our effective income tax rate was primarily due to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("Tax Act") enacted in December 2017 which reduced the statutory U.S. corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% effective January 1, 2018. Income tax expense during interim periods is based on our estimated annual effective income tax rate plus any discrete items that are recorded in the period in which they occur. Our tax rate is affected by discrete items that may occur in any given year, but may not be consistent from year to year.
While we substantially completed our provisional analysis of the income tax effects of the Tax Act as of December 31, 2017 and recorded a reasonable estimate in 2017 of such effects, actual effects may differ, possibly materially, due to, among other things, further refinement of our calculations, changes in interpretations and assumptions that we have made, additional guidance that may be issued by the U.S. Government, and actions and related accounting policy decisions we may take as a result of the Tax Act. We will complete our analysis of the impact of the Tax Act for 2017 over a one-year measurement period ending December 22, 2018, and any adjustments during this measurement period will be included in net earnings from continuing operations as an adjustment to income tax expense in the reporting period when such adjustments are determined. During the three months ended March 31, 2018, we did not identify any adjustment to the net one-time charge for the period ending December 31, 2017 related to the Tax Act.
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