INCOME TAXES (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

The Company's consolidated Federal, State and City income tax provisions were comprised of the following:

The provision for income taxes differed from that computed at the Federal statutory rate as follows:

	Year Ended December 31,
	2017			2016			2015
Tax at Federal statutory rate	$	31,058		$	46,715		$	26,606
State and local taxes, net of federal income tax benefit		5,008			11,323			5,102
ESOP acceleration expense		-			3,962			-
Benefit plan differences		(535	)		(54	)		(59	)
Adjustments for prior period returns and tax items		84			(13	)		590
Investment in BOLI		(776	)		(957	)		(842	)
Enactment of federal tax reform		3,135			-			-
Equity based compensation		(1,283	)		-			-
Other, net		165			(19	)		(152	)
TOTAL	$	36,856		$	60,957		$	31,245
Effective tax rate		41.53	%		45.67	%		41.10	%

The components of Federal, State and City deferred income tax assets and liabilities were as follows:

	At December 31,
Deferred tax assets:	2017		2016
Allowance for loan losses	$	6,836	$	9,203
Employee benefit plans		7,148		15,630
Tax effect of purchase accounting fair value adjustments		307		453
Other		2,135		1,756
Total deferred tax assets		16,426		27,042
Deferred tax liabilities:
Tax effect of other components of income on investment securities and MBS		1,474		766
Difference in book and tax carrying value of fixed assets		20		776
Difference in book and tax basis of unearned loan fees		2,837		3,021
Difference in book and tax basis of deferred income from REIT subsidiary		2,262		-
Other		605		214
Total deferred tax liabilities		7,198		4,777
Net deferred tax asset (recorded in other assets)	$	9,228	$	22,265