Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act ("CARES Act") was enacted into law. The primary impact to the Company’s financial statements as a result of the CARES Act will be the deferral of US corporate income tax payments from the second quarter of 2020 to July 2020 as well as the deferral of employer related payroll tax payments from the second, third and fourth quarters of 2020 with 50% to be paid in the fourth quarter of 2021 and the remaining 50% to be paid in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Income tax expense was $44 million and $39 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively. The effective tax rate, expressed by calculating the income tax expense as a percentage of Income before income taxes, was 20.7% for the three months ended March 31, 2020 and differed from the US federal statutory rate of 21.0% primarily due to excess tax benefits on equity-based compensation, partially offset by state and local income taxes. The effective tax rate for the three months ended March 31, 2019 was 20.2% and differed from the US federal statutory rate of 21.0%

primarily due to excess tax benefits on equity-based compensation and a discrete tax benefit related to CDW Canada’s acquisition of Scalar Decisions Inc., partially offset by state and local income taxes.