Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Income Taxes

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Income Taxes
 9 Months Ended
Nov. 30, 2018
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
INCOME TAXES
INCOME TAXES:

Our effective tax rate for the nine months ended November 30, 2018, and November 30, 2017, was 15.5% and 20.1%, respectively. Our effective tax rate for the three months ended November 30, 2018, and November 30, 2017, was 10.2% and 23.3%, respectively.

For the nine months and three months ended November 30, 2018, our effective tax rate was lower than the federal statutory rate of 21% primarily due to:

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Lower effective tax rates applicable to our foreign businesses;
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The recognition of an income tax benefit for the three months ended November 30, 2018, associated with an adjustment to provisional amounts recognized for the year ended February 28, 2018, in connection with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “TCJ Act”) (see additional discussion below); and
•
The recognition of a net income tax benefit from stock-based compensation award activity.

For the three months ended November 30, 2018, our effective tax rate was also unfavorably impacted by the lower effective tax rate on the benefit of the net unrealized losses from the changes in fair value of the November 2017 Canopy investments.

For the nine months and three months ended November 30, 2017, our effective tax rate was lower than the federal statutory rate of 35% primarily due to:

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Lower effective tax rates applicable to our foreign businesses, including our assertion regarding indefinitely reinvesting earnings of certain foreign subsidiaries, which was initially asserted in the third quarter of fiscal 2017; and
•
The recognition of a net income tax benefit from stock-based compensation award activity.

On December 22, 2017, the TCJ Act was signed into law. The TCJ Act significantly changes U.S. corporate income taxes. Additionally, in December 2017, the SEC issued guidance related to the income tax accounting implications of the TCJ Act. This guidance provides a measurement period, which extends no longer than one year from the enactment date of the TCJ Act, during which a company may complete its accounting for the income tax implications of the TCJ Act. In accordance with this guidance, we recognized a provisional net income tax benefit for the year ended February 28, 2018. Refer to Note 13 of our consolidated financial statements included in our 2018 Annual Report for further information.

For the three months ended November 30, 2018, we completed our analysis of the income tax implications of the TCJ Act. We recognized an additional income tax benefit of $37.6 million resulting from a decrease in the mandatory one-time transition tax on unremitted earnings of our foreign businesses.

The TCJ Act also creates a new requirement that certain income earned by foreign subsidiaries (“GILTI”) be included in U.S. gross income. The FASB allows an accounting policy election of either recognizing deferred taxes for temporary differences expected to reverse as GILTI in future years or recognizing such taxes as a current period expense when incurred. We have elected to treat the tax effect of GILTI as a current-period expense when incurred.