Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Earnings (loss) from continuing operations before income taxes

Following is a summary of earnings from continuing operations before income taxes for United States and foreign operations:



	2016		2015	2014
United States	$	627,567	324,210	331,553
Foreign	613,558		424,651	332,338
Earnings before income taxes	$	1,241,125	748,861	663,891

Income tax expense (benefit)

Income tax expense (benefit) from continuing operations for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 consists of the following:



	2016			2015		2014
Current income taxes:
U.S. federal	$	247,917		117,602		100,826
State and local	31,939			11,175		13,686
Foreign	61,712			31,981		41,151
Total current	341,568			160,758		155,663
Deferred income taxes:
U.S. federal	(16,167		)	4,165		31,052
State and local	(22,115		)	(3,983	)	(3,473	)
Foreign	4,273			(29,065	)	(51,605	)
Total deferred	(34,009		)	(28,883	)	(24,026	)
Total	$	307,559		131,875		131,637

Reconciliation of income tax expense (benefit)

Income tax expense (benefit) attributable to earnings from continuing operations before income taxes differs from the amounts computed by applying the U.S. statutory federal income tax rate to earnings from continuing operations before income taxes as follows:



	2016			2015		2014
Income taxes at statutory rate	$	434,394		262,102		232,362
State and local income taxes, net of federal income tax benefit	6,298			4,951		9,239
Foreign income taxes^(a)	(111,217		)	(95,198	)	(89,385	)
Change in valuation allowance	(21,106		)	(14,237	)	(6,482	)
Tax contingencies and audit settlements^(b)	2,496			(23,032	)	(7,882	)
Other, net	(3,306		)	(2,711	)	(6,215	)
	$	307,559		131,875		131,637

(a) Foreign income taxes includes statutory rate differences, financing arrangements, withholding taxes, local income taxes, notional deductions, and other miscellaneous items.

(b) 2016 and 2015 include reversals of uncertain tax positions of $5,371 and $11,180, respectively.

Deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities

The tax effects of temporary differences that give rise to significant portions of the deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities as of December 31, 2016 and 2015 are presented below:



	2016			2015
Deferred tax assets:
Accounts receivable	$	23,521		11,134
Inventories	48,673			42,558
Employee benefits	76,143			70,989
Accrued expenses and other	72,258			54,652
Deductible state tax and interest benefit	5,186			491
Intangibles	12,874			34,003
Federal, foreign and state net operating losses and credits	456,130			458,743
Gross deferred tax assets	694,785			672,570
Valuation allowance	(289,078		)	(287,580	)
Net deferred tax assets	405,707			384,990
Deferred tax liabilities:
Inventories	(13,099		)	(8,663	)
Plant and equipment	(426,087		)	(429,258	)
Intangibles	(243,339		)	(267,571	)
Other liabilities	(50,041		)	(30,256	)
Gross deferred tax liabilities	(732,566		)	(735,748	)
Net deferred tax liability	$	(326,859	)	(350,758	)

Reconciliation of unrecognized tax benefits

A reconciliation of the beginning and ending amount of unrecognized tax benefits is as follows:



	2016			2015
Balance as of January 1	$	51,037		49,599
Additions based on tax positions related to the current year	2,221			684
Additions for tax positions of acquired companies	—			27,455
Additions for tax positions of prior years	6,412			2,330
Reductions resulting from the lapse of the statute of limitations	(6,294		)	(13,471	)
Settlements with taxing authorities	(6,555		)	(11,693	)
Effects of foreign currency translation	(387		)	(3,867	)
Balance as of December 31	$	46,434		51,037