Income Tax

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Income Tax

Income Tax

Note 3                    Income Tax

For the three months ended March 31, 2012 and 2011, the Company recorded income tax benefits of $16.2 and $13.9, respectively, which were primarily driven by the Company’s jurisdictional earnings mix of foreign earnings at a low taxed rate and domestic losses at a higher taxed rate. The reported benefit for the three months ended March 31, 2012 reflects a $10.6 tax benefit related to our domestic continuing operations, which is supported by taxable income generated by the sale of Allrecipes.com, which is included as a component of discontinued operations; as well as a discrete tax benefit of $4.7 related to the reversal of reserves for uncertain tax positions, as discussed below.  The income tax benefit recorded in the three months ended March 31, 2012 also reflects the limitation under GAAP that the tax benefit for the year-to-date loss cannot be greater than the anticipated full year benefit.

We consider many factors when evaluating and estimating our uncertain tax positions and tax benefits, which may require periodic adjustments and may not accurately anticipate actual outcomes.  During the three months ended March 31, 2012, we settled foreign tax litigation related to the years 2007 and 2008, resulting in a $4.7 decrease in the amount of unrecognized tax benefits related to this item.  The amount of unrecognized tax benefits, including interest from uncertain tax positions at March 31, 2012 and December 31, 2011, are $22.8 and $26.9, respectively.