INCOME TAXES (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2026

Schedule of Income before Income Tax, Domestic and Foreign

The Company’s income from continuing operations before income taxes includes the following components for the periods shown below (in millions):


	Fiscal Years Ended September 30,
	2026		2025		2024
United States	$	2,202	$	2,119	$	1,800
Foreign	562		510		415
	$	2,764	$	2,629	$	2,215

Income Tax Provision on Income Before Income Taxes

The Company’s income tax provision (benefit) on income from continuing operations consists of the following for the periods shown below (in millions):


	Fiscal Years Ended September 30,
	2026		2025		2024
Current
Federal	$	424	$	420	$	354
State	67		45		38
Foreign	117		100		98
	608		565		490
Deferred
Federal	23		(32)		(6)
State	6		1		7
Foreign	19		21		9
	48		(10)		10
	$	656	$	555	$	500

Schedule of Effective Income Tax Rate Reconciliation

Reconciliations between the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate and the effective income tax rate consist of the following for the period shown below (in millions):


	Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2026
	Amount		Percent
Federal statutory income tax rate	$	580	21.0	%
State and local income taxes, net of federal income tax effect (1)	59		2.1	%
Foreign tax effects	31		1.1	%
Effect of changes in tax laws or rates enacted in the current period	—		—	%
Effect of cross-border tax laws:
Foreign-derived intangibles income	(47)		(1.7)	%
Other	24		0.8	%
Tax credits	(29)		(1.0)	%
Changes in valuation allowances:
Federal valuation allowance - 163j	48		1.7	%
Nontaxable or nondeductible items	(14)		(0.5)	%
Changes in unrecognized tax benefits	(1)		—	%
Other adjustments	5		0.2	%
Income tax expense and effective tax rate	$	656	23.7	%

(1)State taxes in California, Illinois, and New Jersey made up the majority (greater than 50 percent) of the tax effect in this category.

A reconciliation from the statutory federal income tax rate to our effective income tax rate, applying ASC 740 prior to the adoption of ASU 2023-09, consists of the following for the periods shown below:


	Fiscal Years Ended September 30,
	2025		2024
Federal statutory income tax rate	21.0	%	21.0	%
Changes in valuation allowances impacting results	3.7	%	4.0	%
State and local income taxes, net of federal benefit	0.9	%	1.3	%
Foreign-derived intangibles income	(1.6)	%	(1.2)	%
Stock-based compensation	(2.9)	%	(3.6)	%
Other—net	—	%	1.1	%
Effective income tax rate	21.1	%	22.6	%

Components of Deferred Taxes

The components of the deferred taxes consist of the following (in millions):


	September 30, 2026		September 30, 2025
Deferred tax assets:
Interest expense limitation	$	479	$	419
Employee benefits	150		131
Inventories	130		99
Net operating losses	58		59
Capitalized research and development costs	45		86
Other	1		14
Total deferred tax assets	863		808
Valuation allowance	(516)		(456)
Net deferred tax assets	347		352
Deferred tax liabilities:
Intangible assets	(1,042)		(1,012)
Outside basis differences	(194)		—
Property, plant and equipment	(134)		(99)
Total deferred tax liabilities	(1,370)		(1,111)
Total net deferred tax (liabilities) assets	$	(1,023)	$	(759)

Summary of Valuation Allowance

The following schedule presents the changes in deferred tax asset valuation allowance as follows (in millions):


Fiscal Year Ended September 30,	Balance at Beginning of Period	Charged to Income Tax Expense		Balance at End of Period
2026	$456	$	60	$	516
2025	318	138		456
2024	227	91		318

Schedule of Income Taxes Paid, Net of Refunds

Total income taxes paid, net of refunds, by material jurisdiction in accordance with the adoption of ASU 2023-09 consists of the following for the period shown below (in millions):


	September 30, 2026
U.S. federal	$	420
State and local	58
Foreign
Germany	48
Other	73
	$	599