Income Taxes



	Three Months Ended March 31
	2019		2018
Effective tax rate on pre-tax income from continuing operations	24.3	%	20.7	%

Income tax expense for the three months ended March 31, 2019 reflects $2 million for discrete items associated with PPG's U.S. and foreign locations and implementation of updated regulations associated with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for Global Intangible Low Taxed Income. For the three months ended March 31, 2018, discrete items of $15 million reduced Income tax expense. Income tax expense for the first three months of 2019 is based on an estimated annual effective rate, which requires management to make its best estimate of annual pretax income or loss.

During the year, PPG management regularly updates forecasted annual pretax results for the various countries in which we operate based on changes in factors such as prices, shipments, product mix, and raw material inflation and manufacturing operations. To the extent that actual 2019 pretax results for U.S. and foreign income or loss vary from estimates, the actual Income tax expense recognized in 2019 could be different from the forecasted amount used to estimate the Income tax expense for the three months ended March 31, 2019.