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Income Taxes
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
INCOME TAXES
10.    INCOME TAXES

On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act was enacted, which resulted in significant changes to the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. The most significant changes affecting us were as follows:

Modification of the limitations previously set by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 by providing that tax net operating losses (NOLs) arising in a tax year beginning in 2018, 2019, or 2020 can be carried back five years. This provision allows the taxpayer to recover taxes previously paid at a 35 percent federal income tax rate during tax years prior to 2018. In addition, the CARES Act removed the taxable income limitation to allow a tax NOL to fully offset taxable income for tax years beginning before January 1, 2021.

Increased the deductibility of interest expense from 30 percent to 50 percent of adjusted taxable income for 2019 and 2020. Also, a taxpayer can elect to use its 2019 adjusted taxable income in 2020 to determine the deductible amount of interest expense in that year.

Our income tax benefit for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 included a tax benefit of $121 million and $238 million, respectively, attributable to the expected tax NOL carryback provided under the CARES Act for expected tax NOLs from our current tax year to our 2015 tax year in which we paid federal income taxes at a 35 percent tax rate. The variation in the customary relationship of our effective tax rate to the U.S. federal statutory rate for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 is primarily due to the income tax benefit associated with the expected tax NOL carryback described above. In addition, the higher effective tax rate for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 was also affected by the impact of nontaxable income that has the effect of increasing the effective tax rate in periods where we incur a loss before income taxes.