18. INCOME TAXES

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

	Year Ended December 31, 2018									Year Ended December 31, 2017						Year Ended December 31, 2016
	Federal			State and City			Total			Federal		State and City		Total		Federal		State and City		Total
Current	$	12,226		$	4,008		$	16,234		$	20,818	$	5,523	$	26,341	$	42,834	$	17,026	$	59,860
Deferred		(554	)		(253	)		(807	)		8,334		2,181		10,515		702		395		1,097
TOTAL	$	11,672		$	3,755		$	15,427		$	29,152	$	7,704	$	36,856	$	43,536	$	17,421	$	60,957

The preceding table excludes tax effects recorded directly to stockholders’ equity in connection with unrealized gains and losses on securities available-for-sale (including losses on such securities upon their transfer to held-to-maturity), interest rate derivatives, stock-based compensation plans for years prior to 2017, and adjustments to other comprehensive income relating to the minimum pension liability, unrecognized gains of pension and other postretirement obligations and changes in the non-credit component of OTTI. These tax effects are disclosed as part of the presentation of the consolidated Statements of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity and Comprehensive Income.

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

	Year Ended December 31,
	2018			2017			2016
Tax at Federal statutory rate	$	14,010		$	31,058		$	46,715
State and local taxes, net of federal income tax benefit		2,967			5,008			11,323
ESOP acceleration expense		—			—			3,962
Benefit plan differences		(312	)		(535	)		(54	)
Adjustments for prior period returns and tax items		(693	)		84			(13	)
Investment in BOLI		(605	)		(776	)		(957	)
Enactment of federal tax reform		—			3,135			—
Equity based compensation		(128	)		(1,283	)		—
Other, net		188			165			(19	)
TOTAL	$	15,427		$	36,856		$	60,957
Effective tax rate		23.12	%		41.53	%		45.67	%

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recorded for temporary differences between the book and tax bases of assets and liabilities. The components of Federal, State and City deferred income tax assets and liabilities were as follows:

	At December 31,
	2018		2017
Deferred tax assets:
Allowance for loan losses		7,071		6,836
Employee benefit plans		6,809		7,148
Tax effect of purchase accounting fair value adjustments		291		307
Tax effect of other components of income on investment securities and MBS		948		—
Other		2,112		2,135
Total deferred tax assets		17,231		16,426
Deferred tax liabilities:
Tax effect of other components of income on investment securities, MBS, and interest rate derivatives		827		1,474
Difference in book and tax carrying value of fixed assets		1,497		20
Difference in book and tax basis of unearned loan fees		2,986		2,837
Difference in book and tax basis of deferred income from REIT subsidiary		—		2,262
Other		527		605
Total deferred tax liabilities		5,837		7,198
Net deferred tax asset (recorded in other assets)	$	11,394	$	9,228

On December 22, 2017, the President signed into law the Tax Act. The Tax Act amends the Internal Revenue Code to reduce tax rates and modify policies, credits, and deductions for individuals and businesses. For businesses, the Tax Act reduces the corporate federal tax rate from a maximum rate of 35% to a flat rate of 21%. The rate reduction took effect January 1, 2018.

Under generally accepted accounting principles, the Company uses the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes. Under this method, deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax basis. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to be recovered or settled. As a result of the reduction in the corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, the Company recorded tax expense of $3,135 during the year ended December 31, 2017.

Also on December 22, 2017, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 (“SAB 118”) to address any uncertainty or diversity of views in practice in accounting for the income tax effects of the Act in situations where a registrant did not have the necessary information available, prepared, or analyzed in reasonable detail to complete this accounting in the reporting period that included the enactment date. SAB 118 allowed for a measurement period not to extend beyond one year from the Tax Act’s enactment date to complete the necessary accounting.

As of December 31, 2017, the Company recorded provisional adjustments of income tax effects of certain elements of the Tax Act, such as the accelerated depreciation which allows for full expensing of qualified property purchased and placed into service after September 27, 2017 and the Company has made no adjustments to deferred tax assets representing future deductions for accrued compensation that may be subject to new limitations under Internal Revenue Code 162(m) which, generally, limits the annual deduction for certain compensation paid to certain employees to $1 million. The accounting for these items was finalized in 2018 with no material impact on income tax expense.

No valuation allowances were recognized on deferred tax assets during the years ended December 31, 2018 or 2017, since, at each period end, it was deemed more likely than not that the deferred tax assets would be fully realized.

At December 31, 2018 and 2017, the Bank had accumulated bad debt reserves totaling $15,158 for which no provision for income tax was required to be recorded. These bad debt reserves could be subject to recapture into taxable income under certain circumstances, including a distribution of the bad debt benefits to the Holding Company or the failure of the Bank to qualify as a bank for federal income tax purposes. Should the reserves as of December 31, 2018 be fully recaptured, the Bank would recognize $5,042 in additional income tax expense. The Company expects to take no action in the foreseeable future that would require the establishment of a tax liability associated with these bad debt reserves.

The Company is subject to regular examination by various tax authorities in jurisdictions in which it conducts significant business operations. The Company regularly assesses the likelihood of additional examinations in each of the tax jurisdictions resulting from ongoing assessments.

Under current accounting rules, all tax positions adopted are subjected to two levels of evaluation. Initially, a determination is made, based on the technical merits of the position, as to whether it is more likely than not that a tax position will be sustained upon examination, including resolution of any related appeals or litigation processes. In conducting this evaluation, management is required to presume that the position will be examined by the appropriate taxing authority possessing full knowledge of all relevant information. The second level of evaluation is the measurement of a tax position that satisfies the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold. This measurement is performed in order to determine the amount of benefit to recognize in the financial statements. The tax position is measured at the largest amount of benefit that is greater than 50% likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement. The Company had no unrecognized tax benefits as of December 31, 2018 or 2017. The Company does not anticipate any material change to unrecognized tax benefits during the year ending December 31, 2019.

As of December 31, 2018, the tax years ended December 31, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 remained subject to examination by all of the Company's relevant tax jurisdictions. The 2014 tax year is subject to examination for New Jersey only. The Company is currently not under audit in any taxing jurisdictions.