Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

On December 22, 2017, the Tax Reform Act was enacted into law. The Tax Reform Act significantly revises the U.S. corporate income tax laws by, amongst other things, reducing the corporate income tax rate from 35.0% to 21.0%. In addition to the tax rate reduction, the legislation establishes new provisions that affect our 2019 results, including but not limited to: the creation of a new minimum tax called the base erosion anti-abuse tax ("BEAT"); a new provision that taxes U.S. allocated expenses (e.g., interest and general administrative expenses) and currently taxes certain income greater than 10% return on assets from foreign operations called Global Intangible Low-Tax Income (“GILTI”); a new limitation on deductible interest expense; and limitations on the deductibility of certain employee compensation and benefits.

The Company's tax provision for interim periods is determined using an estimate of its annual effective tax rate, adjusted for discrete items. The Company’s reported effective income tax rate was 45.5% and 0.7% for the three months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively. The Company’s reported effective income tax rate was 19.0% and (1.8)% for nine months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively. The Company’s effective income tax rate differs from the U.S. federal statutory rate each year due to certain operations that are subject to tax incentives, state and local taxes, valuation allowances, impacts of the Tax Reform Act, and foreign tax rates that are different than the U.S. federal statutory tax rate. In addition, the effective tax rate can be impacted each period by discrete factors and events such as a write-off of a deferred tax asset for stock‑based compensation due to the expiration of unexercised stock options and prior year provision to return adjustments.

Valuation allowances are recorded to reduce deferred tax assets when it is more likely than not that a tax benefit will expire unutilized. At the end of each reporting period, the Company reviews the realizability of its deferred tax assets. There were no material valuation adjustments for the three months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018. Additionally, the Company continues to incur losses in jurisdictions which have valuation allowances against tax loss carryforwards, so a tax benefit has not been recognized in the financial statements for these losses.