INCOME TAXES

The components of earnings (loss) before income taxes, after adjusting the earnings (loss) for non-controlling interests, are as follows



	Three months ended December 31,
	2017			2016
United States	$	(1,143,000	)	$	2,062,000
Canada	(377,000		)	(368,000		)
	$	(1,520,000	)	$	1,694,000

The components of the income tax provision (benefit) are as follows:



	Three months ended December 31,
	2017			2016
Current	$	(573,000	)	$	(72,000	)
Deferred	70,000			125,000
	$	(503,000	)	$	53,000

Consolidated taxes do not bear a customary relationship to pretax results due primarily to the fact that the Company is taxed separately in Canada based on Canadian source operations and in the U.S. based on consolidated operations, and essentially all deferred tax assets, net of relevant offsetting deferred tax liabilities and any amounts estimated to be realizable through tax carryback strategies, are not estimated to have a future benefit as tax credits or deductions. Income from our non-controlling interest in the Kukio Resort land development partnerships is treated as non-unitary for state of Hawaii unitary filing purposes, thus unitary Hawaii losses provide limited sheltering of such non-unitary income.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“TCJA”), enacted on December 22, 2017, contains significant changes including a reduction in the U.S. corporate income tax rate, repeal of the corporate Alternative Minimum Tax (“AMT”), restriction of the deduction for post-TCJA net operating losses to 80% of taxable income and elimination of net operating loss carrybacks, and mandatory deemed repatriation and resulting taxation of all undistributed foreign earnings, as well as various other changes that either do not currently have a significant impact to the Company, or that may impact us in the future should those provisions become applicable to the Company. We believe our assessment of the estimated impacts of the TCJA is complete based on information available to date. However, the TCJA makes broad and complex changes to the U.S. tax code and is subject to interpretation until additional guidance is issued by taxation and financial reporting authorities. The ultimate impact of the TCJA may differ from our estimates due to changes in the interpretations and assumptions we used and changes in any future regulatory guidance.

The TCJA reduces the U.S. statutory tax rate from 35% to 21%, effective January 1, 2018. The Company’s U.S. federal statutory rate for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2018 will be a blended rate of 24.5%, based on a fiscal year blended rate calculation of pre- and post-TJCA rates, and will be 21% for future fiscal years. There was no financial statement impact of the TCJA’s reduction in the U.S. statutory tax rate in the quarter ended December 31, 2017 as the Company has a full valuation allowance on its net deferred tax assets under U.S. federal tax law.

The repeal of the corporate AMT provides a mechanism for the refund over time of any unused AMT credit carryovers. Prior to the enactment of the TCJA, it was not more likely than not that the Company’s AMT credit carryovers would provide a future benefit, as such the AMT deferred tax asset had a full valuation allowance. As a result of the new TCJA provision for refundability of the AMT, the Company recorded a current income tax benefit of $460,000 in the quarter ended December 31, 2017 to reflect the undiscounted unused AMT credit carryover balance as a non-current income tax receivable. Respective portions of this balance will be reclassified to current income taxes receivable when amounts are eligible for refund within one year of the balance sheet date.

The TCJA restricts the deduction for post-TCJA net operating losses to 80% of taxable income and eliminates the current net operating loss carryback provisions. The Company has determined that all existing pre-TCJA net operating loss carryovers are of sufficient magnitude and life such that they will fully shelter future reversals of U.S. federal deferred tax liabilities. As such, there was no financial statement impact of the TCJA’s changes to net operating losses in the quarter ended December 31, 2017.

The TCJA establishes mandatory deemed repatriation and resulting taxation of all post-1986 undistributed foreign earnings. As the Company’s Canadian operations consist of a U.S. corporate subsidiary operating as a branch in Canada and other minor, inactive Canadian corporate subsidiaries there was no impact from this provision.