Income Taxes

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2023

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Note 9—Income Taxes

The following table discloses significant components of income taxes for each year presented:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2023		2022		2021
Income tax expense (benefit) from operations:
Current income tax expense (benefit)	$	145,880	$	138,968	$	143,995
Deferred income tax expense (benefit)	77,631		68,757		99,502
	223,511		207,725		243,497
Shareholders’ equity:
Other comprehensive income (loss)	4,762		384,035		149,061
	$	228,273	$	591,760	$	392,558

In each of the years 2021 through 2023, deferred income tax expense (benefit) was incurred because of certain differences between net income before income tax expense (benefit) as reported on the Consolidated Statements of Operations and taxable income as reported on Globe Life's income tax returns. As explained in Note 1—Significant Accounting Policies, these differences caused the consolidated financial statement book values of some assets and liabilities to be different from their respective tax bases.

The effective income tax rate differed from the expected U.S. federal statutory rate of 21% as shown below:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2023		%	2022		%	2021		%
Expected federal income tax expense (benefit)	$	250,796	21.0	$	231,443	21.0	$	267,668	21.0
Increase (reduction) in income taxes resulting from:
Low income housing investments	(14,291)		(1.2)	(11,443)		(1.1)	(12,115)		(1.0)
Share-based awards	(4,724)		(0.4)	(5,251)		(0.5)	(5,597)		(0.4)
Tax-exempt investment income	(9,644)		(0.8)	(8,961)		(0.8)	(6,977)		(0.5)
Other	1,374		0.1	1,937		0.2	518		—
Income tax expense (benefit)	$	223,511	18.7	$	207,725	18.8	$	243,497	19.1

The tax effects of temporary differences that gave rise to significant portions of the deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities are presented below:

	December 31,
	2023		2022
Deferred tax assets:
Unrealized losses	$	732,750	$	738,555
Carryover of tax losses	4,227		2,470
Total gross deferred tax assets	736,977		741,025
Deferred tax liabilities:
Employee and agent compensation	100,689		86,063
Deferred acquisition costs	892,149		826,254
Future policy benefits, unearned and advance premiums, and policy claims	267,564		267,802
Other liabilities	17,466		18,362
Total gross deferred tax liabilities	1,277,868		1,198,481
Net deferred tax liability	$	540,891	$	457,456

Bermuda Corporate Income Tax Act, The Bermuda Corporate Income Tax Act (the Act) was enacted on December 27, 2023, and included a new corporate income tax (CIT). The Act and CIT go into effect for years beginning after January 1, 2025. The Company is in the process of evaluating the impact the Act will have on the consolidated financial statements; however, the Company does not expect the Act to have a material impact.

Inflation Reduction Act, The Inflation Reduction Act (the Act) was enacted on August 16, 2022, and included a new corporate alternative minimum tax (CAMT). The Act and the CAMT go into effect for tax years beginning after 2022.

Globe Life Inc., as parent of a tax-controlled group, has determined that it does not reasonably expect to be an applicable corporation on a group basis for the taxable year ended December 31, 2023. Therefore, the Company did not calculate or recognize a payable for CAMT in its 2023 financial statements.

Income Tax Return: Globe Life Inc. and its subsidiaries file a life-nonlife consolidated federal income tax return. The statutes of limitations for the Internal Revenue Service's examination and assessment of additional tax are closed for all tax years prior to 2017 with respect to Globe Life's consolidated federal income tax returns. Management concludes that adequate provision has been made in the consolidated financial statements for any potential assessments that may result from current or future tax examinations and other tax-related matters for all open years.

Valuations: Globe Life has a $20.1 million net operating loss (NOL) carryforward at December 31, 2023, of which $7.2 million was created prior to 2017 and will begin to expire in 2032 if not otherwise used to offset future taxable income. The remaining NOL carryforward of $12.9 million may be carried forward indefinitely. A valuation allowance is to be recorded when it is more likely than not that deferred tax assets will not be realized by the Company. No valuation allowance has been recorded relating to Globe Life's deferred tax assets as management has determined that Globe Life will more likely than not have sufficient taxable income in future periods to fully realize its existing deferred tax assets.

Globe Life's tax liability is adjusted to include a provision for uncertain tax positions taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. However, during the years 2021 through 2023, Globe Life did not have any uncertain tax positions which resulted in unrecognized tax benefits.