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INCOME TAXES
6 Months Ended
Apr. 30, 2018
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
INCOME TAXES
INCOME TAXES
On December 22, 2017, President Trump signed the "Tax Cut and Jobs Act" (the "Tax Act") into law. The provisions of the Tax Act that will materially affect our fiscal years 2018 and thereafter include, but are not limited to, a reduction in the corporate federal income tax rate from 35% to 21% and a change in the bonus depreciation rules to allow full expensing of qualified property in the year placed in service. Provisions of the Tax Act that will not affect our fiscal year 2018, but could materially affect our fiscal years 2019 and thereafter include, but are not limited to, a lower tax rate on foreign-derived intangible income, the repeal of the domestic production activities deduction and changes to the rules regarding the deductibility of excessive employee remuneration for certain employees.
Our financial statements for the first half of fiscal 2018 were materially affected by the changes enacted by the Tax Act to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. U.S. GAAP requires that the effects from changes in tax laws be recognized in the period in which the new law is enacted, which for the Tax Act is our first quarter of fiscal 2018. For fiscal 2018, our statutory federal income tax rate will decrease from the previously enacted 35% to approximately 23.3%. The fiscal 2018 statutory rate will not decrease entirely to 21%, because it is a blended rate of two months at 35% (before the Tax Act became effective) and ten months at 21% (after the Tax Act became effective). In addition to benefiting from the lower corporate federal income tax rate on current earnings, the Company recorded a tax benefit in accordance with U.S. GAAP related to the revaluation of its deferred tax assets and liabilities using the enacted tax rate expected to apply when the temporary differences from which the deferred taxes arose are expected to be settled.
Following the enactment of the Tax Act, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidance in Staff Accounting Bulletin 118 which provides the Company up to a one-year measurement period, beginning on the Tax Act's enactment date, in which to complete the required analysis and accounting for the effects of the Tax Act. The guidance allows the Company to record provisional adjustments related to the impacts of the Tax Act when the accounting for the effects of the Tax Act is incomplete, but when reasonable estimates can be made regarding the effects of the Tax Act. Our accounting for the Tax Act is not complete, because it required the Company to estimate the timing of settlement of the temporary differences from which our deferred taxes arose; however, we were able to make reasonable estimates, and we recorded those estimates as provisional adjustments as described in the paragraph below. The Company will continue to monitor these estimates as we move through the measurement period. If any adjustments to the provisional amounts are required, those adjustments will be recorded in the period such new information becomes available.
The Company's estimated annual effective tax rates for the three and six months ended April 30, 2018 were 24.3% and (28.3)%, respectively, as compared to 34.9% and 34.3%, respectively, for the three and six months ended April 30, 2017. The revaluation of our deferred taxes using the newly enacted tax rate resulted in a $37.5 million discrete income tax benefit recognized during the first quarter of fiscal 2018. There were no other material discrete items affecting the comparative periods. Excluding the effects of discrete items, the Company's estimated annual effective tax rate for the six months ended April 30, 2018 would have been approximately 24.4%, as compared to approximately 35.0% for the six months ended April 30, 2017.