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INCOME TAXES
 9 Months Ended
Jun. 28, 2019
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
INCOME TAXES INCOME TAXES
The Company’s effective tax rate was 50.9% and 21.2% for the three months ended June 28, 2019 and June 29, 2018, respectively, and 28.5% and 89.2% for the nine months ended June 28, 2019 and June 29, 2018, respectively. The increase in the Company’s effective tax rate for the three months ended June 28, 2019, compared to the year-ago period, is primarily
because the current period includes a goodwill impairment charge and an in-process research and development expense, neither of which generate a tax benefit for the Company. The decrease in the Company’s effective tax rate for the nine months ended June 28, 2019, compared to the year-ago period, was primarily because the prior period included the tax effect of a change in law due to the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the "Act"), which was signed into law on December 22, 2017. The current periods also include the impact of several provisions of the Act that take effect for the Company for the first time in the fiscal year ending September 27, 2019, including a new minimum tax on certain foreign earnings (the Global Intangible Low-taxed Income, or "GILTI"), a new tax on certain payments to foreign related parties (the Base Erosion and Anti-avoidance Tax), a new incentive for foreign-derived intangible income, changes to the limitation on the deductibility of certain executive compensation, and new limitations on the deductibility of interest expense. The Company has elected to account for GILTI as a period cost rather than on a deferred basis. The current periods also reflects the fact that, as the Company has a September fiscal year end, the lower 21% federal rate is now fully phased in; that is, it is applicable to our domestic earnings for the full fiscal year ending September 27, 2019.
As part of the transition to a modified territorial system, the Act imposed a one-time transition tax on the unremitted earnings of the Company's foreign subsidiaries. The Company recorded a discrete tax expense related to the one-time transition tax of $2.3 million during the first quarter of fiscal year 2019, and of $6.4 million during the third quarter of fiscal year 2019, resulting in the cumulative amount of $173.3 million. The Company has elected to pay this tax over the eight-year period allowed for in the Act.
On December 22, 2017, the SEC issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118. This guidance allowed registrants a “measurement period,” to complete their accounting for the tax effects of the Act. The Company relied on this guidance to refine its estimates of the impact of the Act during the measurement period. The measurement period ended during the Company's period ended December 28, 2018. As a result, the Company considered its accounting for the tax effects of the Act to be complete at that time based on its interpretation of the law and subsequent guidance that had been issued to that point. Subsequently, it was necessary to adjust the Company's calculation of the tax as a result of further guidance and its impact on the Company's interpretation of the rules. It is expected that the U.S. Treasury will continue to issue regulations and other guidance on the application of certain provisions of the Act that may impact the Company's interpretation of the rules and our calculation of the tax impact of the transition tax or other provisions of the Act.
The Company adopted the FASB guidance related to intra-entity transfers of assets other than inventory in the first quarter of fiscal year 2019. This standard changes the treatment of the tax effect of transfers of property other than inventory among the entities within a registrant's consolidated group. Under the prior standard, the tax effect related to the transfer of property other than inventory from one member of the group to another was recorded to prepaid income taxes, which is included in prepaid expenses and other current assets on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. Under the new standard, the tax effect related to the transfer of property other than inventory from one member of the group to another is recorded as a discrete item to taxes on earnings in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Earnings. The Company recorded a cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle of $0.2 million as of September 29, 2018, as a result of adopting the new standard. The Company expects that the new standard may cause its effective tax rate to be more volatile and less predictable going forward.
The Company’s effective income tax rate differs from the U.S. federal statutory rate primarily because the Company’s foreign earnings are taxed at rates that are, on average, lower than the U.S. federal rate, and because the Company’s domestic earnings are subject to state income taxes. The total amount of unrecognized tax benefits did not materially change during the nine months ended June 28, 2019; however, the amount of unrecognized tax benefits has increased as a result of positions taken during the current and prior years and has decreased as the result of the expiration of the statutes of limitation in various jurisdictions.