Chicago, IL Area-Based McDonald's Corp Had a Strong 4Q 2017 With Global Sales Comparables of +5.5%, Operating Income Up 9% and Pretax Income Also Up 9% .................................................................................... 4Q 2017 Net Income Was $699 Mil, Down 41% or Down $494 Mil, From the 4Q 2016 Net Income of $1,193 Mil .................................................................................... The 4Q 2017 Top Line Income Tax Expense and Net Income Numbers Look Bad Superficially, But When You Look Under the Surface, McDonald's Cleans Up On the Income Tax Front Under the Trump Tax Bill .................................................................................... McDonald's Clearly Understands How Complex and Subjective the Computation is of the Trump Tax Bill Effect on 4Q 2017 Earnings, Especially For a Multi-National Company With Operations All Over the Globe and With a High Percentage of Its Earnings Overseas (70% in 2016) ....................................................................................... McDonald's Says There Are Two Hugely Material Effects on Its 4Q 2017 Earnings: The Clearly Rounded $1.2 Bil Tax Cost of Foreign Earnings Repatriation and the Also Clearly Rounded $0.5 Bil Tax Windfall From Net Deferred Income Tax Liability Revaluation From 35% to 21% (I Call That the Tax Debt Forgiveness) and These Two Components Net To Only $0.7 Bil Income Tax Expense On the Total Unremitted Foreign Earnings Which Were $16 Bil at Dec 31, 2016: Yeah, That Effective Tax Rate Is a Steal ....................................................................................... The Tax Numbers McDonald's Discloses All Make Sense: It Says Its Effective Tax Rate is 27.4% If You Exclude the Trump Tax Bill Effect and 27.4% X Pretax Income of $1.885 Bil = $516 Mil as Compared To the Reported 4Q 2017 Income Tax Expense of $1.186 Bil and the Difference Is $0.670 Bil ($1.186 Bil - $0.516 Bil = $0.670 Bil), Which Is Consistent With the Rounded Net Effect It Disclosed of $0.7 Bil ....................................................................................... Also McDonald's 4Q 2017 Net Income Does Increase By 15% and EPS By 19% If You Exclude the Trump Tax Bill Effect and From What I've Seen So Far, There Are Only a Handful of Very Large Stock Market Cap US Companies Which Can Say That (Facebook, UnitedHealth and Alphabet To Name 3 and There Are a Few Others)