The accompanying financial statements are reported on a fiscal year, however, the Company and its corporate subsidiaries file Federal and State income tax returns on a calendar year.

The current and deferred income tax expense (benefit) for the three and six months ended March 31, 2019, and 2018 are as follows:

	Three Months Ended						Six Months Ended
	March 31,						March 31,
(in thousands)	2019			2018			2019			2018
Income before income taxes	$	101,564		$	82,783		$	104,852		$	111,453
Current tax expense (benefit)		37,958			(1,989	)		39,547			(761	)

Deferred tax (benefit) expense		(8,719	)		29,778			(9,335	)		38,490
Deferred tax (benefit) expense - impact of tax reform		-			216			-			(11,236	)
Total deferred tax (benefit) expense		(8,719	)		29,994			(9,335	)		27,254
Total tax expense	$	29,239		$	28,005		$	30,212		$	26,493

The effective income tax rate increased from 23.8% for the six months ended March 31, 2018 to 28.8% for the six months ended March 31, 2019 due primarily to a provisional $11.2 million discrete tax benefit recorded as of March 31, 2018 that was not recorded as of March 31, 2019. The discrete tax benefit resulted from the re-measurement of deferred tax liabilities as of March 31, 2018 due to the reduction of the Federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% effective January 1, 2018 per the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted in December 2017. The Company’s net deferred tax liabilities will be realized at a lower statutory tax rate than when originally recorded. Excluding the impact of the discrete tax benefit, our effective income tax rate decreased from 33.9% for the six months ended March 31, 2018 to 28.8% for the six months ended March 31, 2019 primarily due to the lower enacted Federal statutory tax rate.

Our continuing practice is to recognize interest and penalties related to income tax matters as a component of income tax expense. We file U.S. Federal income tax returns and various state and local returns. A number of years may elapse before an uncertain tax position is audited and finally resolved. For our Federal income tax returns we have four tax years subject to examination. In our major state tax jurisdictions of New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania we have four years that are subject to examination. In the state tax jurisdiction of New Jersey we have five tax years that are subject to examination. While it is often difficult to predict the final outcome or the timing of resolution of any particular uncertain tax position, based on our assessment of many factors including past experience and interpretation of tax law, we believe that our provision for income taxes reflect the most probable outcome. This assessment relies on estimates and assumptions and may involve a series of complex judgments about future events.