Target Corporation prepares its financial statements according to U.S. GAAP. Target’s financial statements and disclosure notes for the year ended February 3, 2018, are available in Connect. This material also is available under the Investor Relations link at the company’s website (www.target.com). 

Required: 

1. From the income statement, determine the income tax expense for the year ended February 3, 2018. Tie that number to the second table in disclosure Note 23, “Provision for Income Taxes,” and prepare a summary journal entry that records Target’s tax expense from continuing operations for the year ended February 3, 2018. 

2. Focusing on the third table in disclosure Note 23, “Net Deferred Tax Asset/(Liability),” calculate the change in net deferred tax assets or liability. By how much did that amount change? To what extent did you account for that change in the journal entry you wrote for the first requirement of this case? List possible causes of any difference. 

3. Target’s Note 23 indicates that “In December 2017, the U.S. government enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act tax reform legislation (the Tax Act), which among other matters reduced the U.S. corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent effective January 1, 2018. . . . We have recorded a provisional $352 million net tax benefit primarily related to the remeasurement of certain deferred tax assets and liabilities, including $381 million of benefit from the new lower rate, partially offset by $29 million of deferred income tax expense from our foreign operations.” What’s the effect on net income? 

4. What is Target’s liability for unrecognized tax benefits as of February 3, 2018? If Target were to prevail in court and realize $50 million more in tax savings than it thought more likely than not to occur, what would be the effect on the liability for unrecognized tax benefits and on net income?