Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

We consider new evidence (both positive and negative) at each reporting date that could affect our view of the future realization of deferred tax assets. Based upon the evaluation of all available evidence, and considering the projected U.S. pre-tax losses for 2020, we maintain a valuation allowance for certain of our U.S. operations as of September 30, 2020. We also maintain other valuation allowances for certain non-U.S. jurisdictions with cumulative losses.

Our effective income tax rate for both the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 was (5)%, and (2)% and (20)% and (11)% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019, respectively, and were determined using an estimated annual effective tax rate after considering any discrete items for such periods. Due to the aforementioned valuation allowance against certain of our U.S. net deferred tax assets, the effective tax rates for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019 generally do not include the benefits of the U.S. tax losses; however, we recorded an overall tax benefit in continuing operations for the three months ended September 30, 2019 primarily as a result of other comprehensive

income gains in certain of our U.S. operations. The change in effective tax rates relates primarily to the overall mix of income (loss) in our jurisdictions without valuation allowances and the increase in unbenefited U.S. pre-tax losses. Additionally, the effective tax rate for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020 included an unfavorable adjustment for the legacy U.K. Gaming reporting unit goodwill impairment of $54 million recorded in the first quarter of 2020, which is not deductible for tax purposes. The tax structure of our SciPlay business was altered as a result of SciPlay’s initial public offering, which was completed on May 7, 2019. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020, we recorded a tax provision for our 18% noncontrolling interest in SciPlay.

As discussed in Note 1, the COVID-19 disruptions significantly impacted certain segments of our business during the first half of 2020. We considered the COVID-19 disruptions in our ability to realize deferred tax assets in the future and determined that such conditions did not change our overall valuation allowance positions. The U.S. signed into law on March 27, 2020 the CARES Act, which includes various income tax provisions to help stabilize U.S. businesses, including a provision to ease the limitation on deductible interest expense in 2019 and 2020, which will reduce our interest limitation for these years, preserving U.S. net operating losses. We continue to monitor and evaluate the tax implications resulting from the CARES Act and any new legislation passed in response to COVID-19 in the federal, state, and foreign jurisdictions where we have an income tax presence.

Certain of our US federal, state, and foreign tax attributes may be subject to annual limitations under Internal Revenue Code Section 382 (“Section 382”) (or comparable provisions of state or foreign law) in the event that certain changes in ownership were to occur. Tax attributes that exceed the Section 382 limitation in any year continue to be allowed as carry forwards until they expire and can be used to offset taxable income for years within the carryover period subject to the limitation in each year. Given the Company’s significant US tax attributes, we continuously monitor potential ownership changes under Section 382 and are currently assessing whether we experienced a Section 382 ownership change as a result of recent shareholder transactions. In the event that we determine that ownership changes create a Section 382 limitation, we do not believe that the limitation would cause tax attributes to expire unutilized based on current law.