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Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2013
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes
Fluctuations in our provision for income taxes as a percentage of pretax earnings (“effective tax rate”) are due to changes in international and U.S. state effective tax rates and discrete items.
During the three months ended September 30, 2013, the effective tax rate of 23.2 percent was impacted by net favorable discrete items of $61 million, which reduced the rate by 13.7 percentage points. The discrete items include the favorable impact of the settlement of federal and state tax controversies ($63 million).
During the three months ended September 30, 2012, the effective tax rate of 38.1 percent was impacted by net unfavorable discrete items of $4 million, which increased the rate by 1.0 percentage point. The discrete items include unfavorable amounts related to remeasurement of certain unrecognized tax benefits.
We had $452 million and $650 million of unrecognized tax benefits at September 30, 2013 and June 30, 2013, respectively. The September 30, 2013 and June 30, 2013 balances include $281 million and $371 million, respectively, of unrecognized tax benefits that, if recognized, would have an impact on the effective tax rate. The remaining unrecognized tax benefits relate to tax positions for which ultimate deductibility is highly certain but for which there is uncertainty as to the timing of such deductibility. Recognition of these tax benefits would not affect our effective tax rate. We include the full amount of unrecognized tax benefits in deferred income taxes and other liabilities in the condensed consolidated balance sheets.
We recognize accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits in the provision for income taxes. At September 30, 2013 and June 30, 2013 we had $131 million and $198 million, respectively, accrued for the payment of interest and penalties. These balances are gross amounts before any tax benefits and are included in deferred income taxes and other liabilities in the condensed consolidated balance sheets.
It is reasonably possible that there could be a change in the amount of unrecognized tax benefits within the next 12 months due to activities of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") or other taxing authorities, including proposed assessments of additional tax, possible settlement of audit issues, reassessment of existing unrecognized tax benefits or the expiration of applicable statutes of limitations. We estimate that the range of the possible change in unrecognized tax benefits within the next 12 months is a decrease of approximately $20 million to an increase of approximately $5 million, exclusive of penalties and interest.
We file income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction, various U.S. state jurisdictions and various foreign jurisdictions. We are generally subject to audit by taxing authorities for fiscal years 2003 through the current fiscal year.
During the three months ended September 30, 2013, the IRS closed audits of fiscal years 2003 through 2005. The IRS is currently conducting audits of fiscal years 2006 through 2010, and our transfer pricing arrangements continue to be under consideration as part of these audits. While the IRS has made and could make proposed adjustments to our transfer pricing arrangements, or other matters, we are defending our reported tax positions, and have accounted for the unrecognized tax benefits associated with our tax positions.
We are a party to a tax matters agreement with CareFusion Corporation ("CareFusion"), under which CareFusion is obligated to indemnify us for certain tax exposures and transaction taxes prior to our fiscal 2010 spin-off of CareFusion. The indemnification receivable was $171 million and $186 million at September 30, 2013 and June 30, 2013, respectively, and is included in other assets in the condensed consolidated balance sheets.