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Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2018
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 41.3 percent for the three months ended March 31, 2018, compared to 32.9 percent for the three months ended March 31, 2017. Our effective tax rate for the three months ended March 31, 2018, was above the United States statutory rate of 21 percent and was affected by the timing and mix of pretax income earned in jurisdictions with rates different from the United States statutory rate of (1.1) percent, the impact of foreign exchange of 6.0 percent, and other items including foreign withholding tax and nondeductible expenses of 15.4 percent. Our effective tax rate for the three months ended March 31, 2017, was below the United States statutory rate of 35 percent and was affected by the timing and mix of pretax income earned in jurisdictions with rates different from the United States statutory rate of (28.9) percent, the impact of foreign exchange of 12.7 percent, and other items including foreign withholding tax and nondeductible expenses of 14.1 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, the Mexican tax authority (SAT) assessed one of our Mexican subsidiaries 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 U.S. 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. There were no significant developments affecting this matter for the three months ended March 31, 2018.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the Act), enacted December 22, 2017, changed many aspects of the U.S. tax code. Our accounting for the Act is incomplete. As noted at year-end, however, we were able to reasonably estimate certain effects and, therefore, recorded provisional adjustments associated with the deemed repatriation transition tax and the revaluation of our deferred taxes. We have not yet made an accounting policy decision regarding whether we will treat Global Intangible Low Taxed Income (GILTI) as a period cost or establish deferred taxes related thereto. We have not made any additional measurement-period adjustments related to these items during the quarter. However, we are continuing to gather additional information to complete our accounting for these items and expect to complete our accounting within the prescribed measurement period.