Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes for the three months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 was an expense of $50.0 million and a benefit of $2.8 million, respectively. The provision for income taxes for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020 was an expense of $208.6 million and $22.8 million, respectively.

The effective income tax rate was an expense of 25.1% and a benefit of 19.7% for the three months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, respectively. The three month results for both years included movements in unrecognized tax benefits as well as changes in estimated geographical mix of earnings. The change in the effective tax rate was largely attributable to differences in the relative impacts of these items period over period.

The effective income tax rate was 26.3% and 13.4% for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, respectively. In addition to the items noted above, the nine month results for 2020 included benefits from intercompany sales of certain intellectual property. Approximately $28.3 million of tax benefits were recognized, representing the value of future tax deductions for amortization of the assets in the acquiring jurisdiction. No such benefits were included in the nine months ended September 30, 2021. This drove an additional increase in the 2021 year to date effective income tax rate.

The Company had gross unrecognized tax benefits of $132.0 million on September 30, 2021 and $127.1 million on December 31, 2020. It is reasonably possible that gross unrecognized tax benefits will decrease by approximately $10.0 million within the next twelve months due to the anticipated closure of audits and the expiration of certain statutes of limitation.