Income Taxes

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2024

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,
	2024		2023		2022
Income tax expense (benefit) from operations:
Current income tax expense (benefit)	$	218,135	$	145,880	$	138,968
Deferred income tax expense (benefit)	37,740		77,631		68,757
	255,875		223,511		207,725
Shareholders’ equity:
Other comprehensive income (loss)	197,427		4,762		384,035
	$	453,302	$	228,273	$	591,760

In each of the years 2022 through 2024, 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,
	2024		%	2023		%	2022		%
Expected federal income tax expense (benefit)	$	278,594	21.0	$	250,796	21.0	$	231,443	21.0
Increase (reduction) in income taxes resulting from:
Low-income housing investments	(9,700)		(0.7)	(14,291)		(1.2)	(11,443)		(1.1)
Share-based awards	1,341		0.1	(4,724)		(0.4)	(5,251)		(0.5)
Tax-exempt investment income	(9,644)		(0.7)	(9,644)		(0.8)	(8,961)		(0.8)
Other tax credits	(5,000)		(0.4)	—		—	—		—
Other	284		—	1,374		0.1	1,937		0.2
Income tax expense (benefit)	$	255,875	19.3	$	223,511	18.7	$	207,725	18.8

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,
	2024		2023
Deferred tax assets:
Unrealized losses	$	532,756	$	732,750
Carryover of tax losses	10,342		4,227
Total gross deferred tax assets	543,098		736,977
Less valuation allowance	(3,383)		—
Net deferred tax assets	539,715		736,977
Deferred tax liabilities:
Employee and agent compensation	104,385		100,689
Deferred acquisition costs	961,406		892,149
Future policy benefits, unearned and advance premiums, and policy claims	228,117		267,564
Other liabilities	24,432		17,466
Total gross deferred tax liabilities	1,318,340		1,277,868
Net deferred tax liability	$	778,625	$	540,891

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, 2024. Therefore, the Company did not calculate or recognize a payable for CAMT in its 2024 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 $49.2 million net operating loss (NOL) carryforward at December 31, 2024, of which $7.2 million was created prior to 2018 and will begin to expire in 2035 if not otherwise used to offset future taxable income. The remaining NOL carryforward of $42.0 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. A valuation allowance has been established in the amount of $3.4 million related to pre-acquisition NOL carryforward deferred tax assets acquired in 2024 as management has determined that the acquired companies will more than likely not have sufficient taxable income in future periods to realize the 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 2022 through 2024, Globe Life did not have any uncertain tax positions which resulted in unrecognized tax benefits.