Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Components of Income Tax Expense (Benefit)

Components of current and deferred income tax expense (benefit) are as follows ($000’s omitted):

 

	2019		2018			2017
Current expense (benefit)
Federal	$	196,186	$	(44,462	)	$	81,101
State and other	21,252		7,202			(11,801		)
	$	217,438	$	(37,260	)	$	69,300
Deferred expense (benefit)
Federal	$	74,700	$	271,544		$	444,695
State and other	30,738		91,233			(22,388		)
	$	105,438	$	362,777		$	422,307
Income tax expense (benefit)	$	322,876	$	325,517		$	491,607

Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation

The following table reconciles the statutory federal income tax rate to the effective income tax rate:

 

	2019		2018		2017
Income taxes at federal statutory rate	21.0	%	21.0	%	35.0	%
State and local income taxes, net of federal tax	3.7		4.0		3.1
Tax accounting method change	—		(2.5	)	—
Changes in tax laws, including the Tax Act	0.2		1.0		18.3
Deferred tax asset valuation allowance	(0.4	)	0.9		(1.1	)
Tax contingencies	(0.1	)	0.1		(1.0	)
Other	(0.3	)	(0.3	)	(1.9	)
Effective rate	24.1	%	24.2	%	52.4	%

Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities

Components of our net deferred tax asset are as follows ($000’s omitted):

 

	At December 31,
	2019			2018
Deferred tax assets:
Accrued insurance	$	142,515		$	144,225
Inventory valuation reserves	97,585			132,495
Other	64,373			50,237
NOL carryforwards:
Federal	12,962			27,122
State	200,710			228,959
Tax credits	8,648			7,692
	526,793			590,730
Deferred tax liabilities:
Deferred income	(228,186		)	(195,596		)
Intangibles and other	(44,547		)	(26,966		)
	(272,733		)	(222,562		)
Valuation allowance	(83,953		)	(92,589		)
Net deferred tax asset	$	170,107		$	275,579

Summary of Income Tax Contingencies

A reconciliation of the change in the unrecognized tax benefits is as follows ($000’s omitted):

 

	2019			2018			2017
Unrecognized tax benefits, beginning of period	$	30,554		$	48,604		$	21,502
Increases related to positions taken during a prior period	2,376			5,389			20,555
Decreases related to positions taken during a prior period	(7,918		)	(31,850		)	(9,665		)
Increases related to positions taken during the current period	16,332			8,411			18,895
Decreases related to settlements with taxing authorities	(1,044		)	—			—
Decreases related to lapse of the applicable statute of limitations	—			—			(2,683		)
Unrecognized tax benefits, end of period	$	40,300		$	30,554		$	48,604