the company is currently under audit by the internal revenue service and other major taxing jurisdictions around the world . it is thus reasonably possible that significant changes in the gross balance of unrecognized tax benefits may occur within the next 12 months , but the company does not expect such audits to result in amounts that would cause a significant change to its effective tax rate , other than the following items . the company is currently at irs appeals for the years 1999 20132002 . one of the issues relates to the timing of the inclusion of interchange fees received by the company relating to credit card purchases by its cardholders . it is reasonably possible that within the next 12 months the company can either reach agreement on this issue at appeals or decide to litigate the issue . this issue is presently being litigated by another company in a united states tax court case . the gross uncertain tax position for this item at december 31 , 2008 is $ 542 million . since this is a temporary difference , the only effect to the company 2019s effective tax rate would be due to net interest and state tax rate differentials . if the reserve were to be released , the tax benefit could be as much as $ 168 million . in addition , the company expects to conclude the irs audit of its u.s . federal consolidated income tax returns for the years 2003 20132005 within the next 12 months . the gross uncertain tax position at december 31 , 2008 for the items expected to be resolved is approximately $ 350 million plus gross interest of $ 70 million . the potential net tax benefit to continuing operations could be approximately $ 325 million . the following are the major tax jurisdictions in which the company and its affiliates operate and the earliest tax year subject to examination: .
at december 31 , 2008 what was the percent of the gross interest associated to the gross uncertain tax position expected to be resolved to
foreign pretax earnings approximated $ 10.3 billion in 2008 , $ 9.1 billion in 2007 , and $ 13.6 billion in 2006 ( $ 5.1 billion , $ 0.7 billion and $ 0.9 billion of which , respectively , are in discontinued operations ) . as a u.s . corporation , citigroup and its u.s . subsidiaries are subject to u.s . taxation currently on all foreign pretax earnings earned by a foreign branch . pretax earnings of a foreign subsidiary or affiliate are subject to u.s . taxation when effectively repatriated . the company provides income taxes on the undistributed earnings of non-u.s . subsidiaries except to the extent that such earnings are indefinitely invested outside the united states . at december 31 , 2008 , $ 22.8 billion of accumulated undistributed earnings of non-u.s . subsidiaries were indefinitely invested . at the existing u.s . federal income tax rate , additional taxes ( net of u.s . foreign tax credits ) of $ 6.1 billion would have to be provided if such earnings were remitted currently . the current year 2019s effect on the income tax expense from continuing operations is included in the foreign income tax rate differential line in the reconciliation of the federal statutory rate to the company 2019s effective income tax rate on the previous page . income taxes are not provided for on the company 2019s savings bank base year bad debt reserves that arose before 1988 because under current u.s . tax rules such taxes will become payable only to the extent such amounts are distributed in excess of limits prescribed by federal law . at december 31 , 2008 , the amount of the base year reserves totaled approximately $ 358 million ( subject to a tax of $ 125 million ) . the company has no valuation allowance on deferred tax assets at december 31 , 2008 and december 31 , 2007 . at december 31 , 2008 , the company had a u.s . foreign tax-credit carryforward of $ 10.5 billion , $ 0.4 billion whose expiry date is 2016 , $ 5.3 billion whose expiry date is 2017 and $ 4.8 billion whose expiry date is 2018 . the company has a u.s federal consolidated net operating loss ( nol ) carryforward of approximately $ 13 billion whose expiration date is 2028 . the company also has a general business credit carryforward of $ 0.6 billion whose expiration dates are 2027-2028 . the company has state and local net operating loss carryforwards of $ 16.2 billion and $ 4.9 billion in new york state and new york city , respectively . this consists of $ 2.4 billion and $ 1.2 billion , whose expiration date is 2027 and $ 13.8 billion and $ 3.7 billion whose expiration date is 2028 and for which the company has recorded a deferred-tax asset of $ 1.2 billion , along with less significant net operating losses in various other states for which the company has recorded a deferred-tax asset of $ 399 million and which expire between 2012 and 2028 . in addition , the company has recorded deferred-tax assets in apb 23 subsidiaries for foreign net operating loss carryforwards of $ 130 million ( which expires in 2018 ) and $ 101 million ( with no expiration ) . although realization is not assured , the company believes that the realization of the recognized net deferred tax asset of $ 44.5 billion is more likely than not based on expectations as to future taxable income in the jurisdictions in which it operates and available tax planning strategies , as defined in sfas 109 , that could be implemented if necessary to prevent a carryforward from expiring . the company 2019s net deferred tax asset ( dta ) of $ 44.5 billion consists of approximately $ 36.5 billion of net u.s . federal dtas , $ 4 billion of net state dtas and $ 4 billion of net foreign dtas . included in the net federal dta of $ 36.5 billion are deferred tax liabilities of $ 4 billion that will reverse in the relevant carryforward period and may be used to support the dta . the major components of the u.s . federal dta are $ 10.5 billion in foreign tax-credit carryforwards , $ 4.6 billion in a net-operating-loss carryforward , $ 0.6 billion in a general-business-credit carryforward , $ 19.9 billion in net deductions that have not yet been taken on a tax return , and $ 0.9 billion in compensation deductions , which reduced additional paid-in capital in january 2009 and for which sfas 123 ( r ) did not permit any adjustment to such dta at december 31 , 2008 because the related stock compensation was not yet deductible to the company . in general , citigroup would need to generate approximately $ 85 billion of taxable income during the respective carryforward periods to fully realize its federal , state and local dtas. .