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Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2018
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
INCOME TAXES
INCOME TAXES
The Company is required to estimate its income taxes in each of the jurisdictions in which it operates as part of the process of preparing its condensed consolidated financial statements. The Company maintains certain strategic management and operational activities in overseas subsidiaries and its foreign earnings are taxed at rates that are generally lower than in the United States.
On December 22, 2017, President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “2017 Tax Act”) into law effective January 1, 2018. The 2017 Tax Act significantly revised the U.S. tax code by, in part but not limited to: reducing the U.S. corporate maximum tax rate from 35% to 21%, imposing a mandatory one-time transition tax on certain un-repatriated earnings of foreign subsidiaries, modifying executive compensation deduction limitations, and repealing the deduction for domestic production activities. Under Accounting Standards Codification 740, Income Taxes, the Company must recognize the effects of tax law changes in the period in which the new legislation is enacted.
The SEC staff acknowledged the challenges companies face incorporating the effects of the 2017 Tax Act by their financial reporting deadlines. In response, on December 22, 2017, the SEC staff issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 (“SAB 118”) to address the application of U.S. GAAP in situations when a registrant does not have the necessary information available, prepared, or analyzed in reasonable detail to complete accounting for certain income tax effects of the 2017 Tax Act. The Company is applying the guidance in SAB 118 when accounting for the enactment-date effects of the 2017 Tax Act. At March 31, 2018, the Company has not completed its accounting for all of the tax effects of the 2017 Tax Act. However, the Company made a reasonable estimate of certain effects of the 2017 Tax Act. The Company considers all of these amounts to be provisional due to the complexity of the calculations and pending authoritative guidance. The Company will continue to evaluate the data and guidance to refine the income tax impact of the 2017 Tax Act. Pursuant to SAB 118, the Company will complete the accounting for the tax effects of all of the provisions of the 2017 Tax Act within the required measurement period not to extend beyond one year from the enactment date.
The 2017 Tax Act subjects a U.S. shareholder to tax on global intangible low-taxed income (“GILTI”) earned by certain foreign subsidiaries. The FASB Staff Q&A, Topic 740, No. 5, Accounting for Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income provides that an entity may make an accounting policy election to either recognize deferred taxes for temporary basis differences expected to reverse as GILTI in future years, or provide for the tax expense related to GILTI in the year the tax is incurred as a period expense only. Given the complexity of the GILTI provisions, the Company is still evaluating the effects of the GILTI provisions and has not yet determined its accounting policy. As of March 31, 2018, because the Company is still evaluating the GILTI provisions and our analysis of future taxable income that is subject to GILTI, the Company included federal and state GILTI provisional amounts related to current-year operations only in its estimated annual effective tax rate and has not provided additional GILTI on deferred items.
The Company’s continuing operations effective tax rate was 4.4% and 41.4% for the three months ended March 31, 2018 and 2017, respectively. The decrease in the effective tax rate when comparing the three months ended March 31, 2018 to the three months ended March 31, 2017 was generally due to tax charges unique to the period ended March 31, 2017 because of the separation of the GoTo Business and the lower U.S. corporate tax rate effective January 1, 2018. Items specific to the current period further reduced the Company's effective rate relative to the U.S. federal statutory rate, primarily due to the discrete tax benefits for share-based payments.
The Company’s net unrecognized tax benefits totaled $81.1 million and $77.8 million as of March 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, respectively. All amounts included in the balance at March 31, 2018 for tax positions would affect the annual effective tax rate if recognized. The Company accrued $3.4 million for the payment of interest as of March 31, 2018.
The Company and one or more of its subsidiaries are subject to U.S. federal income taxes in the United States, as well as income taxes of multiple state and foreign jurisdictions. The Company is currently no longer under U.S. federal income tax examination. With few exceptions, the Company is generally not under examination for state and local income tax, or in non-U.S. jurisdictions, by tax authorities for years prior to 2014.
In the ordinary course of global business, there are transactions for which the ultimate tax outcome is uncertain; thus, judgment is required in determining the worldwide provision for income taxes. The Company provides for income taxes on transactions based on its estimate of the probable liability. The Company adjusts its provision as appropriate for changes that impact its underlying judgments. Changes that impact provision estimates include such items as jurisdictional interpretations on tax filing positions based on the results of tax audits and general tax authority rulings. Due to the evolving nature of tax rules combined with the large number of jurisdictions in which the Company operates, it is possible that the Company’s estimates of its tax liability and the realizability of its deferred tax assets could change in the future, which may result in additional tax liabilities and adversely affect the Company’s results of operations, financial condition or cash flows.
At March 31, 2018, the Company had $101.1 million in net deferred tax assets. The authoritative guidance requires a valuation allowance to reduce the deferred tax assets reported if, based on the weight of the evidence, it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. The Company reviews deferred tax assets periodically for recoverability and makes estimates and judgments regarding the expected geographic sources of taxable income and gains from investments, as well as tax planning strategies in assessing the need for a valuation allowance. If the estimates and assumptions used in the Company's determination change in the future, the Company could be required to revise its estimates of the valuation allowances against its deferred tax assets and adjust its provisions for additional income taxes.
The Company’s effective tax rate generally differs from the U.S. federal statutory rate primarily due to lower tax rates on earnings generated by the Company’s foreign operations that are taxed primarily in Switzerland. From time to time, there may be other items that impact the Company's effective tax rate, such as the items specific to the current period discussed above.