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Income Taxes
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2018
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes
The effective tax rates on net income from continuing operations were 20.1% and 1.1% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, respectively. The effective tax rates on net income from continuing operations were 2.0% and (49.8)% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017, respectively.
The primary drivers of the tax rate for the three months ended September 30, 2018 include the geographical distribution of income and certain discrete items including return to accrual adjustments and changes in the assertion for unremitted earnings. The return to accrual adjustments also impacted the Company’s provisional estimates as described below.
The primary drivers of the tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 include the geographical distribution of income including restructuring charges, legacy litigation and the impairment of certain assets and liabilities previously classified as held for sale as well as changes from the Tax Reform Act. The tax rate was also impacted by certain discrete items including the net tax benefit associated with the sale of certain assets and liabilities previously classified as held for sale, the impact of share-based payments, and changes in the assertion for unremitted earnings.
On December 22, 2017, the Tax Reform Act was enacted into law and the new legislation contains several key tax provisions that impact the Company, including a reduction of the corporate income tax rate to 21% effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 and a one-time mandatory transition tax on accumulated foreign earnings (the “Transition Tax”), among others. Also on December 22, 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) staff issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 (“SAB 118”) to address the application of U.S. GAAP in situations when a registrant did not have the necessary information available, prepared, or analyzed in reasonable detail to complete the accounting for certain income tax effects of Tax Reform Act in the period of enactment. SAB 118 allowed registrants to record provisional amounts during a one year measurement period.

In the fourth quarter of 2017, a net provisional charge of $345 million was recorded which included the Transition Tax, the re-measurement of existing deferred tax balances, as well as local country income taxes, state income taxes and withholding taxes expected to be due upon repatriation of the earnings subject to the Transition Tax. In addition, the Company was unable to estimate the allocation between continuing and discontinued operations of the tax benefit from foreign tax credits generated in 2017 and related valuation allowance release.
In the second quarter of 2018, the Company reduced its provisional charge for the remeasurement of deferred taxes by $11 million to reflect the anticipated acceleration of contributions to the qualified U.S. pension plan which occurred in the third quarter of 2018.
In the third quarter of 2018, the Company revised its provisional estimates to reflect guidance issued by the U.S. Treasury and state regulatory bodies as well as refined calculations. The adjustments, primarily related to the Transition Tax, increased the provisional charge by $24 million, which increased the effective tax rate by 12.4% and 2.9% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, respectively.
The Company will finalize its accounting in the fourth quarter after analyzing guidance issued during the measurement period, completing its reviews, filing its tax returns, and evaluating the local tax rules where the Company has pools of undistributed earnings within its complex legal entity structure.