Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Income Taxes [Abstract]

Income Taxes

7. Income Taxes

Income tax expense for the nine months ended September 30, 2011, was $30.0 million, or 32.9% of pre-tax income. In the first nine months of 2010, we recorded income tax expense of $23.2 million, or 84.0% of pre-tax income. The reduction in the effective tax rate primarily resulted from a decrease in losses in jurisdictions with full valuation allowances, which resulted in unrecognized tax benefits of $4.0 million in the first nine months of 2011 as compared with $10.3 million in the prior-year period. In addition, the effective tax rate in the first nine months of 2011 included an income tax benefit of $1.7 million related to settlement of foreign tax matters. The effective tax rate in the prior-year period was impacted by $4.3 million of tax charges, which resulted from the elimination of future tax deductions related to Medicare Part D subsidies and the recording of valuation allowances on certain deferred tax assets.