Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Jan. 31, 2019

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

We recorded an income tax provision of $39.4 million for the three months ended January 31, 2019 as compared to an income tax benefit of $0.5 million for the three months ended January 31, 2018. The effective tax rate was 26.0% for the three months ended January 31, 2019, compared to (0.4)% for the three months ended January 31, 2018. The lower effective tax rate for the three months ended January 31, 2018 was primarily due to a $31.2 million income tax benefit from the remeasurement of the Company’s net deferred tax liability as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”), which was enacted into law on December 22, 2017. The income tax provisions for both periods included a provision for state income taxes; interest accrued on anticipated tax assessments; excess tax benefits related to stock-based compensation; and other permanent differences.

The Tax Act, among other changes, reduced the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017. For companies with a fiscal year that does not end on December 31, the change in law requires the application of a blended tax rate for the year of the change. Our blended tax rate for the fiscal 2018 period was 23.3%. For the fiscal 2019 period and thereafter, the applicable statutory rate is 21%. The Tax Act also repealed the domestic production activities deduction effective for the fiscal 2019 period.

We are subject to state tax in the jurisdictions in which we operate. We estimate our state tax liability based upon the individual taxing authorities’ regulations, estimates of income by taxing jurisdiction, and our ability to utilize certain tax-saving strategies.

Based on our estimate of the allocation of income or loss among the various taxing jurisdictions and changes in tax regulations and their impact on our tax strategies, we estimate that our state income tax rate for the full fiscal year 2019 will be approximately 6.8%. Our state income tax rate for the full fiscal year 2018 was 6.6%.

At January 31, 2019, we had $9.7 million of gross unrecognized tax benefits, including interest and penalties. If these unrecognized tax benefits were to reverse in the future, they would have a beneficial impact on our effective tax rate at that time. During the next 12 months, it is reasonably possible that our unrecognized tax benefits will change, but we are not able to provide a range of such change. The possible changes would be principally due to the expiration of tax statutes, settlements with taxing jurisdictions, increases due to new tax positions taken, and the accrual of estimated interest and penalties.