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Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes

9. Income Taxes

The Company recorded an income tax provision of $2.9 million and $2.8 million, respectively, during the three months ended December 31, 2017 and 2016. The tax provision for the three months ended December 31, 2017 was primarily driven by the foreign income generated during the quarter. This provision is partially offset by $0.3 million of tax benefits related to the reduction of reserves for unrecognized tax benefits and $0.7 million of tax benefits related to the re-measurement of net U.S. deferred tax liabilities at the reduced 21 percent federal income tax rate. The income tax provision for the three months ended December 31, 2016 was primarily driven by foreign income generated during the quarter, partially offset by $0.7 million of tax benefits related to the reduction of reserves for unrecognized tax benefits.

During the first quarter of fiscal year 2018, the Company adopted the Accounting Standard Update (“ASU”) 2016-09, Compensation-Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting. Upon adoption of ASU 2016-09, the Company amends the accounting for employee share-based payment transactions to recognize tax effects resulting from the settlement of stock-based awards as income tax expense or benefit in the income statement in the reporting period in which they occur. Adoption of this ASU required recognition of a cumulative effect adjustment to retained earnings in connection with the establishment of a deferred tax asset for any prior year net excess tax benefits or tax deficiencies not previously recorded. This adjustment resulted in a $4.0 million increase to retained earnings and deferred tax asset for net prior year excess tax benefits, with a corresponding decrease to retained earnings for the establishment of valuation allowance against the deferred tax asset.  During the three months ended December 31, 2017 this change had no impact to our income statement or tax rate as a result of the full valuation allowance which exists against U.S. deferred tax assets.

During the three months ended December 31, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“Tax Reform”) was enacted in the U.S., making significant tax law changes affecting the Company. The SEC has issued Staff Accounting Bulletin 118 (“SAB 118”), which has provided guidance for companies that have not completed the accounting for the income tax effects of Tax Reform.  Under SAB 118, a company may report provisional amounts based on reasonable estimates where the accounting is incomplete. These amounts are subject to adjustments during a measurement period of up to one year beginning in the reporting period of the enactment date.

Upon the enactment of Tax Reform, the Company is subject to a toll charge in the U.S. on its previously untaxed accumulated foreign earnings.  The toll charge is treated as an inclusion of the company’s accumulated foreign earnings in U.S. taxable income during the tax year ended September 30, 2018. Any taxes due associated with the toll charge will be payable over an eight year period. The Company has estimated that its accumulated foreign earnings are $120 million which is a provisional amount subject to the measurement period described in Staff Accounting Bulletin 118. There are still incomplete components related to the accumulated foreign earnings calculations for older tax years that require additional time to complete the calculations. The Company also has a history of foreign mergers and acquisitions and proper determination of the impact on the accumulated earnings is complex. The Company has not recorded any provision for currently estimated tax inclusion associated with the toll charge as sufficient previously un-benefited tax attributes, with valuation allowances, exist to offset the inclusion income or resulting tax.  

As a result of Tax Reform, the Company calculated its U.S. tax provision for the three months ended December 31, 2017 using a blended U.S. statutory tax rate of 24.5% which is a prorated allocation of the 35% rate which was in effect prior to tax reform through December 31, 2017 and the 21% rate which will be in effect for the remainder of the fiscal year. The Company recorded a discrete benefit of $0.7 million in the three months ended December 31, 2017 due to the impact of the U.S. rate change on its net U.S. deferred tax liabilities.

As of December 31, 2017, the Company maintains its indefinite reinvestment assertion on foreign earnings until the Company can complete its assessment of Tax Reform impacts on reinvestment plans, which will continue to be evaluated during the measurement period described in SAB 118.  While the toll charge is a forced deemed repatriation of foreign earnings and an inclusion in U.S. taxable income, there are still additional costs of repatriating the foreign earnings such as foreign withholding taxes and state taxes. 

The Company evaluates the realizability of its deferred tax assets by tax-paying component and assesses the need for a valuation allowance on a quarterly basis. The Company evaluates the profitability of each tax-paying component on a historic cumulative basis and on a forward looking basis in the course of performing this analysis. As described below, the Company’s evaluation of all positive and negative evidence and corresponding conclusion regarding maintaining a valuation allowance at December 31, 2017 in the U.S. will be a part of its assessment during the measurement period under SAB 118 of the future impacts Tax Reform will have on its positive and negative evidence to support the reversal of all or some portion of these allowances. Please refer to Note 10, "Income Taxes" to the Company’s consolidated financial statements included in the 2017 Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information on the valuation allowance.

As previously described, the Company maintains a full valuation allowance on its U.S. deferred tax assets. During the three months ended December 31, 2017, the Company considered the impacts of Tax Reform  that will be immediately effective and those that will be effective for future years. In consideration of the effects of Tax Reform, the Company is still in the process of fully evaluating, during the measurement period under SAB 118, all future impacts of the changes as they relate to the  need for the U.S. valuation allowance. The final determination of the various impacts of Tax Reform could have a significant impact to U.S. tax obligations, and could require the Company to change its U.S. valuation allowance conclusion in a future period. As of the time of this filing, the Company believes a full valuation allowance on its U.S. deferred tax assets is required until a full analysis of the impact of Tax Reform is finalized.

The Company is subject to U.S. federal income tax and various state, local and international income taxes in various jurisdictions. The amount of income taxes paid is subject to the Company’s interpretation of applicable tax laws in the jurisdictions in which it files tax returns. In the normal course of business, the Company is subject to income tax audits in various global jurisdictions in which it operates. The years subject to examination vary for the U.S. and international jurisdictions, with the earliest tax year being 2011. Based on the outcome of these examinations or the expiration of statutes of limitations for specific jurisdictions, it is reasonably possible that the related unrecognized tax benefits could change from those recorded in the Company’s unaudited Consolidated Balance Sheets. The Company currently anticipates that it is reasonably possible that the unrecognized tax benefits will be reduced by approximately $0.2 million within the next twelve months.