Income Taxes



	Three Months Ended September 30,		Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2015	2014	2015	2014
	(In percentages)
Effective income tax rate	33	26	22	27

The lower effective income tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2015 is primarily attributable to a $30 million reduction of prior year tax positions due to audit closures and technical judicial clarifications and the implementation of the Company's centralized European headquarters. For the three months ended September 30, 2015, the effective income tax rate was negatively impacted by changes in jurisdictional earnings, that provided no tax benefit.

In February 2015, the Company established a centralized European headquarters for the purpose of improving the operational efficiencies and profitability of its European operations and certain global product lines. These activities will directly impact the Company's mix of earnings and product flows and will result in both favorable and unfavorable tax rate impacts in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015, the Company's uncertain tax positions decreased $53 million, primarily due to a $45 million decrease resulting from audit closures and technical judicial clarifications (Note 6) and exchange rate fluctuations of $14 million, partially offset by interest and other changes in uncertain tax positions.

The Company's US tax returns for the years 2009 through 2012 are currently under audit by the US Internal Revenue Service and certain of the Company's subsidiaries are under audit in jurisdictions outside of the US. The Company does not expect any material changes in the unrecognized tax benefits within the next twelve months related to the settlement of one or more of these audits or lapse of applicable statutes of limitations.