Income Taxes - INCOME TAXES

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2018

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]

INCOME TAXES

As a result of the changes to the U.S. tax code resulting from legislation enacted in December 2017, Farmer Mac's effective tax rate decreased from 35.5 percent for the year ended December 31, 2017 to 20.1 percent for the first nine months of 2018. The effective tax rate was lower than the statutory corporate tax rate in the first nine months of 2018 due to net tax benefits recognized related to exercises of share-based compensation awards during 2018.