Provision for income taxes
in 2014, 2013 and 2012, the reported effective income tax rates were 35.5%,31.9% and 32.4%, respectively.
In 2014, the higher effective income tax rate was primarily due to a change in tax reserves for 2003-2010 resulting from an unfavorable lower tax count ruling in a foreign tax jurisdiction, as well as the impact of changes in tax reserves related to audit progression in multiple foreign tax jurisdictions. Excluding these items, the effective income tax rate would have been 31.4%
In 2013,the effective income tax rate included a tax benefit of nearly $50 million, reflecting the retroactive impact of certain tax benefits as a results of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.
In 2012, the effective income tax rate reflected the negative impact of certain tax benefits in the U.S. that had expired at December 31,2011 and were reinstated retroactively in 2013 as noted above.