Income Tax Footnote (Parts of It)
Tax Act
The FERC and state utility commissions will determine the regulatory treatment of the impacts of the Tax Act for the Subsidiary Registrants. The Duke Energy Registrants’ future results of operations, financial condition and cash flows could be adversely impacted by the Tax Act, subsequent amendments or corrections or the actions of the FERC, state utility commissions or credit rating agencies related to the Tax Act. Duke Energy is reviewing orders to address the rate treatment of the Tax Act by each state utility commission in which the Subsidiary Registrants operate. See Note 4 for additional information. Beginning in January 2018, the Subsidiary Registrants will defer the estimated ongoing impacts of the Tax Act that are expected to be returned to customers.
As a result of the Tax Act, Duke Energy revalued its existing deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities as of December 31, 2017, to account for the estimated future impact of lower corporate tax rates on these deferred tax amounts. For Duke Energy's regulated operations, where the reduction in the net accumulated deferred income tax (ADIT) liability is expected to be returned to customers in future rates, the net remeasurement has been deferred as a regulatory liability. The regulatory liability for income taxes includes the effect of the reduction of the net deferred tax liability including the tax gross-up of the excess accumulated deferred tax liabilities and the effect of the new tax rate on the previous regulatory asset for income taxes. Excess accumulated deferred income taxes are generally classified as either “protected” or “unprotected” under IRS rules. Protected excess ADIT, resulting from accumulated tax depreciation of public utility property, are required to utilize the average rate assumption method under the IRS normalization rules for determining the timing of the return to customers. The majority of the excess ADIT is related to protected amounts associated with public utility property. See Note 4 for additional information on the Tax Act's impact to the regulatory asset and liability accounts.
The majority of Duke Energy’s operations are regulated and it is expected that the Subsidiary Registrants will ultimately pass on the savings associated with the amount representing the remeasurement of deferred tax balances related to regulated operations to customers. Duke Energy recorded a regulatory liability of $8,313 million, representing the revaluation of those deferred tax balances. The Subsidiary Registrants continue to respond to requests from regulators in various jurisdictions to determine the timing and magnitude of savings they will pass on to customers.
As noted above, as a result of the Tax Act, Duke Energy revalued its existing deferred tax assets and liabilities as of December 31, 2017, to account for the estimated future impact of lower corporate tax rates on these deferred amounts. The following table shows the decrease reflected in the net deferred income tax liabilities balance above:
As noted above, as a result of the Tax Act, Duke Energy revalued its existing deferred tax assets and liabilities as of December 31, 2017, to account for the estimated future impact of lower corporate tax rates on these deferred amounts. The following table shows the decrease reflected in the net deferred income tax liabilities balance above:
(in millions) December 31, 2017 Duke Energy $8,982 Duke Energy Carolinas 3,454 Progress Energy 3,282 Duke Energy Progress 1,882 Duke Energy Florida 1,420 Duke Energy Ohio 771 Duke Energy Indiana 1,053 Piedmont 521 | |||
