14. INCOME TAXES

Our income tax rate of 24.4% and 24.9% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011, respectively, differed from the U.S. federal statutory rate of 35% due primarily to tax credits and certain operating earnings from non-U.S subsidiaries that are considered indefinitely invested outside of the United States, partially offset by state taxes and the non-deductible pharmaceutical excise tax. We do not provide for U.S. income taxes on undistributed earnings of our foreign operations that are intended to be permanently reinvested.

We file federal, state and foreign income tax returns in many jurisdictions in the United States and abroad. For federal income tax purposes, the statute of limitations is open for 2003 and onwards. For certain acquired entities, the statute of limitations is open for all years from inception due to our utilization of their net operating losses and credits carried over from prior years. For California income tax purposes, the statute of limitations is open for 2002 and onwards.

Our income tax returns are audited by federal, state and foreign tax authorities. We are currently under examination by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the 2008 and 2009 tax years and by various state and foreign jurisdictions. There are differing interpretations of tax laws and regulations, and as a result, significant disputes may arise with these tax authorities involving issues of the timing and amount of deductions and allocations of income among various tax jurisdictions. Each quarter, we evaluate our exposures associated with our tax filing positions.

As of September 30, 2011, we believe it is reasonably possible that our unrecognized tax benefits will not significantly change in the next 12 months as we do not expect to have clarification from the IRS and other tax authorities around any of our uncertain tax positions. With respect to the remaining unrecognized tax benefits, we are unable to make a reasonable estimate as to the period of cash settlement, if any, with the respective tax authorities.

We record liabilities related to uncertain tax positions in accordance with the income tax guidance which clarifies the accounting for uncertainty in income taxes recognized in an enterprise's financial statements by prescribing a minimum recognition threshold and measurement attribute for the financial statement recognition and measurement of a tax position taken or expected to be taken in a tax return. We do not believe any of our uncertain tax positions will have a material adverse effect on our Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements, although an adverse resolution of one or more of these uncertain tax positions in any period could have a material impact on the results of operations for that period.