Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

The components of Houston Electric’s income tax expense were as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2016			2015		2014
	(in millions)
Current income tax expense:
Federal	$	165		$	106	$	136
State	18			21		19
Total current expense	183			127		155
Deferred income tax expense (benefit):
Federal	(34		)	18		(24		)
Total deferred expense (benefit)	(34		)	18		(24		)
Total income tax expense	$	149		$	145	$	131

Reconciliation Of Expected Federal Income Tax Expense To Actual [Table Text Block]

A reconciliation of income tax expense using the federal statutory income tax rate to the actual income tax expense and resulting effective income tax rate is as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2016			2015			2014
	(in millions)
Income before income taxes	$	425		$	406		$	383
Federal statutory income tax rate	35		%	35		%	35		%
Expected federal income tax expense	149			142			134
Increase (decrease) in tax expense resulting from:
State income tax expense, net of federal income tax	12			14			12
Other, net	(12		)	(11		)	(15		)
Total	—			3			(3		)
Total income tax expense	$	149		$	145		$	131
Effective tax rate	35		%	36		%	34		%

Income Tax Asset Liability Disclosure [Table Text Block]

The tax effects of temporary differences that give rise to significant portions of deferred tax assets and liabilities were as follows:



	December 31,
	2016		2015
	(in millions)
Deferred tax assets:
Benefits and compensation	$	47	$	69
Loss and credit carryforwards	—		6
AROs	12		13
Other	4		7
Total deferred tax assets	63		95

Deferred tax liabilities:
Property, plant, and equipment	1,541		1,447
Regulatory assets/liabilities, net	525		680
Total deferred tax liabilities	2,066		2,127
Net deferred tax liabilities	$	2,003	$	2,032