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INCOME TAXES (Notes)
3 Months Ended
Jan. 31, 2018
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
INCOME TAXES
4.     INCOME TAXES

For the three months ended January 31, 2018, the company's income tax expense was $553 million with an effective tax rate of 237.3 percent. Our effective tax rate and the resulting provision for income taxes were significantly impacted by the discrete charge of $533 million related to the enactment of the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”) as discussed below. The income taxes for the three months ended January 31, 2018 also includes the excess tax benefits of $11 million from stock based compensation.

For the three months ended January 31, 2017, the company's income tax expense was $25 million with an effective tax rate of 13.0 percent. The income tax provision for the three months ended January 31, 2017 included net discrete tax benefits of $2 million. The significant component of the net discrete tax benefit for the three months ended January 31, 2017 included a $11 million tax expense related to an employee pension settlement gain and $7 million of tax benefit for the settlement of an audit in Italy.

2017 U.S. Tax Reform - Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act ("Tax Act") was enacted into law. The Tax Act enacted significant changes affecting our fiscal year 2018, including, but not limited to, (1) reducing the U.S. federal corporate tax rate and (2) imposing a one-time transition tax on certain unrepatriated earnings of foreign subsidiaries that had not been previously taxed in the U.S.

The Tax Act also establishes new tax provisions affecting our fiscal year 2019, including, but not limited to, (1) creating a new provision designed to tax global intangible low-tax income (“GILTI”); (2) generally eliminating U.S. federal taxes on dividends from foreign subsidiaries; (3) eliminating the corporate alternative minimum tax (“AMT”); (4) creating the base erosion anti-abuse tax (“BEAT”); (5) establishing a deduction for foreign derived intangible income ("FDII"); (6) repealing domestic production activity deduction; and (7) establishing new limitations on deductible interest expense and certain executive compensation.

The Tax Act reduces the U.S. federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent effective January 1, 2018. Due to our fiscal year end, the lower corporate tax rate will be phased in, resulting in a U.S. statutory federal rate of 23 percent for our fiscal year ending October 31, 2018 and 21 percent for subsequent fiscal years.

ASC 740, Income Taxes, requires companies to recognize the effect of the tax law changes in the period of enactment. However, the SEC staff issued Staff Accounting Bulletin 118 ("SAB 118")which allows companies to record provisional amounts during a measurement period not extending beyond one year from the Tax Act enactment date. As of January 31, 2018, the company has not completed the accounting for all the impacts of the Tax Act. During the quarter, the company recognized a provisional amount of $533 million which includes (1) an estimated provision of $480 million of U.S. transition tax and correlative items on deemed repatriated earnings of non-U.S. subsidiaries and (2) an estimated provision of $53 million associated with the impact of decreased U.S. corporate tax rate as described below.

Deemed Repatriation Transition Tax ("Transition Tax"): The Transition Tax is based on the company’s total unrepatriated post-1986 earnings and profits ("E&P") of its foreign subsidiaries and the amount of non-U.S. taxes paid on such earnings. Historically, the company permanently reinvested a significant portion of these post-1986 E&P outside the U.S. For the remaining portion, the company previously accrued deferred taxes. Since the Tax Act required all foreign earnings to be taxed currently, the company recorded a provisional income tax expense of $643 million for its one-time transition U.S. federal tax and a benefit of $163 million for the reversal of related deferred tax liabilities. The resulting $480 million net transition tax, reduced by existing tax credits, will be paid over 8 years in accordance with the election available under the Tax Act. These amounts represent the best estimate of all required calculations based on currently available information and do not include any potential state tax impacts. The one-time transition tax is based in part on cash and illiquid asset amounts present on various comparable measurement dates, some of which are as of our future fiscal year end. As a result, the company’s calculation of the transition tax will change as the measurement dates occur and as federal and state tax authorities provide further guidance.

Reduction of U.S. federal corporate tax rate: The reduction of the corporate income tax rate requires companies to remeasure their deferred tax assets and liabilities as of the date of enactment. The provisional amount recorded in the three months ended January 31, 2018 for the remeasurement due to tax rate change is $53 million. We have not yet completed our accounting for the measurement of deferred taxes. To calculate the remeasurement of deferred taxes, we estimated when the existing deferred taxes will be settled or realized. These estimates may be affected by activities in the remaining quarters and other analysis related to the Tax Act, including, but not limited to, the impact of state conformity to the tax law change.

GILTI: The Tax Act subjects a U.S. corporation to tax on its GILTI. The U.S. GAAP allows companies to make an accounting policy election to either (1) treat taxes due on future GILTI inclusions in the U.S. taxable income as a current-period expense when incurred (“period cost method”) or (2) factoring such amounts into a company’s measurement of its deferred taxes (“deferred method”). Our analysis of the new GILTI rules and how they may impact us is incomplete. Accordingly, we have not made a policy election regarding the treatment of GILTI tax.

Indefinite Reinvestment Assertion: The company incurred U.S. tax on substantially all of the prior accumulated earnings of its foreign subsidiaries as part of the Transition Tax. This increased the company’s previously taxed earnings and will allow for the repatriation of the majority of its foreign earnings without any U.S. federal tax. However, any repatriation of its foreign earnings could still be subjected to withholding taxes, state taxes or other income taxes that might be incurred. The company’s analysis is incomplete at this time with respect to its investments intentions for its accumulated foreign earnings. During the period prescribed by SAB 118, the company will evaluate, among other factors, the need for cash within and outside the United States, legal entity capitalization requirements, cash controls imposed in foreign jurisdictions, withholding taxes and the availability to offset with foreign tax credits in determining its investment assertion on its accumulated foreign earnings.

Our estimates as described above, may change as a result of future guidance and interpretation from the Internal Revenue Service, the SEC, the FASB and various other taxing jurisdictions. In particular, we anticipate the U.S. state jurisdictions will continue to determine and announce their conformity or decoupling from the Tax Act either in its entirety or with respect to specific provisions. All of these potential legislative and interpretive actions could result in adjustments to our provisional estimates when the accounting for the income tax effects of the Tax Act is completed.

There were no substantial changes from our 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K to the status of the open tax years in the first three months of fiscal year 2018. In the U.S., tax years remain open back to the year 2014 for federal income tax purposes and the year 2000 for significant states. In other major jurisdictions where the company conducts business, the tax years generally remain open back to the year 2001.

With these jurisdictions and the U.S., it is reasonably possible there could be significant changes to our unrecognized tax benefits in the next twelve months due to either the expiration of a statute of limitation or a tax audit settlement. Given the number of years and numerous matters that remain subject to examination in various tax jurisdictions, management is unable to estimate the range of possible changes to the balance of our unrecognized tax benefits.