Income Taxes

Income tax provisions for interim periods are based on estimated annual income tax rates, adjusted to reflect the effects of any significant infrequent or unusual items which are required to be discretely recognized within the current interim period. The Company’s intention is to permanently reinvest its foreign earnings outside of the United States. As a result, the effective tax rates in the periods presented are largely based upon the forecasted pre-tax earnings mix and allocation of certain expenses in various taxing jurisdictions where the Company conducts its business that apply a broad range of statutory income tax rates, a large majority of which are less than the U.S. statutory rate.

The effective tax rate is as follows:



	Three Months Ended September 30,				Nine Months Ended September 30,
In millions	2015		2014		2015		2014
Effective tax rate	29.1	%	23.6	%	(51.4	)%	26.1	%

For the three months ended September 30, 2015, there were no material discrete tax items; for the nine months ended September 30, 2015, the effective tax rate included a discrete tax item of $84 million resulting from the $340 million goodwill impairment recorded in the second quarter, of which $317 million is related to non-deductible goodwill. The effective tax rate for the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2014 included a $4 million discrete tax benefit resulting from an Internal Revenue Service audit settlement of the 2011 tax year, which occurred in the third quarter of 2014. The difference in the effective tax rate period over period for the three and nine months ended September 30 was primarily driven by a higher mix of U.S. earnings in 2015, plus the discrete tax items listed above.