Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

The effective tax rate for the three months ended September 30, 2023 was 25.1%. The effective tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 was 9.4% and includes a benefit of $1 million on the $119 million goodwill impairment charge as the majority of this charge is nondeductible.

The effective tax rate for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, was 45.8% and 5.6%, respectively, and includes a charge of $2 million due to state tax legislation offset by a benefit of $1 million as a result of the finalization and filing of state income tax returns. The effective tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 also includes a tax benefit of $4 million on the pre-tax gain of $4 million from the sale of Borderfree as the tax basis was higher than book basis and a $1 million benefit associated with the 2019 sale of a business.

As is the case with other large corporations, our tax returns are examined by tax authorities in the U.S. and other global taxing jurisdictions in which we have operations. As a result, it is reasonably possible that the amount of unrecognized tax benefits will decrease in the next 12 months, and this decrease could be up to 15% of our unrecognized tax benefits.

With regard to U.S Federal income tax, the Internal Revenue Service examination of our consolidated U.S. income tax returns for tax years prior to 2019 are closed to audit, but for review of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Sec. 965 transition tax. On a state and local level, the company is closed through 2017 in most jurisdictions. For our significant non-U.S. jurisdictions, Canada is closed to examination through 2018 except for a specific issue under current exam. For France, Germany and the U.K., the company is closed through 2019, 2016, and 2020 respectively. We also have other less significant tax filings currently subject to examination.