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Income Taxes
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2016
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes

For interim tax reporting, we estimate our annual effective tax rate and apply it to our year-to-date ordinary income. Tax jurisdictions with a projected or year-to-date loss for which a tax benefit cannot be realized are excluded from the annualized effective tax rate. The tax effects of unusual or infrequently occurring items, including changes in judgment about valuation allowances and effects of changes in tax laws or rates, are reported in the interim period in which they occur.

Our effective tax rate was 49.3 percent for the nine months ended September 30, 2016, compared to 4.1 percent for the nine months ended September 30, 2015. Our effective tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 exceeded the United States statutory rate primarily due to the following key drivers: unrecognized tax benefits of 9.7 percent, other permanent adjustments including such items as nondeductible expenses and U.S. Subpart F income of 9.0 percent, a valuation allowance on deferred tax assets in the Netherlands of 7.7 percent, and foreign withholding taxes of 4.4 percent, all partially offset by the impact of foreign exchange of (15.4) percent. Our effective tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2015 was substantially below the United States statutory rate primarily due to the following key drivers: impact of foreign exchange of (21.0) percent, valuation allowances on deferred tax assets in the United States and Netherlands of (12.5) percent, and non-U.S. income tax rate differential of (7.7) percent, all partially offset by other permanent adjustments including such items as nondeductible expenses and U.S. Subpart F income of 7.8 percent and foreign withholding taxes of 7.7 percent.

The Company and its subsidiaries are subject to examination by various countries' tax authorities. These examinations may lead to proposed or assessed adjustments to our taxes. In August 2016, one of our Mexican subsidiaries received a tax assessment from the Mexican tax authority (SAT) related to the audit of its 2010 tax year. The amount assessed was approximately 3 billion Mexican Pesos, which was equivalent to approximately $157 million US dollars as of the date of the assessment. The Company has filed an administrative appeal with SAT requesting that the assessment be fully nullified. We are awaiting the outcome of the appeal. Management, in consultation with external legal counsel, believes that if contested in the Mexican court system, it is more likely than not that the Company would prevail on all significant components of the assessment. Management intends to continue to vigorously contest all significant components of the assessment in the Mexican courts if they are not nullified at the administrative appeal level. We believe that our tax reserves related to uncertain tax positions are adequate at this time.