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Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2018
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes
We estimate our annual effective tax rate for continuing operations in recording our quarterly income tax provision (or benefit) for the various jurisdictions in which we operate. The tax effects of statutory rate changes, significant unusual or infrequent items, and certain changes in the assessment of the realizability of deferred tax assets are excluded from the determination of our annual effective tax rate as such items are recognized as discrete items in the quarter in which they occur.
For the Current Quarter, our effective tax rate remains nominal as a result of maintaining a valuation allowance against substantially all of our net deferred tax asset. Based on our projected operating results for the subsequent 2018 quarters, we project remaining in a net deferred tax asset position as of December 31, 2018. Based on all available positive and negative evidence, including estimates of future taxable income, we believe it is more-likely-than-not that these deferred tax assets will not be realized. A significant piece of objective negative evidence evaluated is the projected cumulative loss incurred over the rolling three-year period ending March 31, 2018, which limits our ability to consider other subjective positive evidence, such as our projections for future growth and earnings. A valuation allowance was recorded against substantially all of our net deferred tax asset as of both December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2018.
We are subject to U.S. federal income tax as well as income and capital taxes in various state jurisdictions. During the Current Quarter, the federal tax examination by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of taxable years 2010 through 2013 was settled. Based on new information available in the Current Quarter and the expectation that certain statute of limitations should expire during 2018, we anticipate a $14 million estimated reduction to the liability for state unrecognized tax benefits resulting in an $11 million estimated income tax benefit being recorded as early as the next quarter.
On December 22, 2017, the President of the United States signed into law the Tax Act, which substantially revised numerous areas of U.S. federal income tax law, including reducing the tax rate for corporations from a maximum rate of 35% to a flat rate of 21% and eliminating the corporate alternative minimum tax (AMT). The various estimates included in determining our tax provision as of December 31, 2017 remain provisional through the three months ended March 31, 2018 and may be adjusted through subsequent events such as the filing of the 2017 consolidated federal income tax return and the issuance of additional guidance such as new Treasury Regulations. Moreover, we are still in the process of evaluating the full impact of the Tax Act both at the federal and state level.