Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

Reconciliations of statutory U.S. federal income tax rates to our effective tax rate

Reconciliations of the statutory U.S. federal income tax rates to our effective tax rate for continuing operations follow:



	Years Ended December 31,
	2017		2016		2015
Statutory rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
Tax reform	3.1		—		—
State tax, net of federal benefit	2.6		3.1		3.0
Reverse federal impact of indemnification adjustments	2.5		(0.7	)	0.1
Unrecognized tax benefits, U.S. federal and state, net of federal benefit	(2.0	)	1.6		(0.5	)
Excess tax benefits/deficiencies for employee stock-based compensation, federal and state, net of federal benefit	(1.7	)	—		—
Impact of state rate change on net deferred tax liabilities, net of federal benefit	0.6		(0.5	)	0.5
State, valuation allowance adjustments on net operating losses	0.2		1.0		(0.2	)
Other, net	0.9		0.1		(0.4	)
Effective tax rate	41.2	%	39.6	%	37.5	%

Components of provision for income tax expense (benefit)

Income tax expense consists of:



	December 31,
	2017			2016			2015
Current provision:
Federal	$	248,191		$	228,505		$	215,950
State	13,092			24,336			26,057
Total current provision	261,283			252,841			242,007
Deferred (benefit)/provision:
Federal	(58,124		)	(89,518		)	(69,546		)
State	(628		)	786			(7,681		)
Total deferred benefit	(58,752		)	(88,732		)	(77,227		)
Provision for income tax expense	$	202,531		$	164,109		$	164,780

Schedule of deferred tax assets and liabilities

The tax effect of temporary differences that give rise to deferred tax assets and liabilities is summarized below. The December 31, 2016 amounts were based upon a 35 percent statutory U.S. federal income tax rate, and the December 31, 2017 amounts were based upon a 21 percent statutory U.S. federal income tax rate.



	December 31,
	2017		2016
Deferred tax assets:
Loan reserves	$	62,603	$	72,125
Stock-based compensation plans	10,216		16,471
Deferred revenue	782		793
Operating loss carryovers	4,186		8,371
Unrealized losses	—		5,364
Accrued expenses not currently deductible	5,356		13,605
Unrecorded tax benefits	3,781		5,702
Other	2,410		10,844
Total deferred tax assets	89,334		133,275
Deferred tax liabilities:
Gains on repurchased debt	40,175		126,403
Fixed assets	5,303		6,831
Acquired intangible assets	4,595		6,288
Unrealized gains	1,104		—
Federal deferred for state receivable	3,584		2,058
Other	1,349		875
Total deferred tax liabilities	56,110		142,455
Net deferred tax liabilities	$	33,224	$	(9,180	)

Summary of changes in unrecognized tax benefits

The following table summarizes changes in unrecognized tax benefits:



	December 31,
	2017			2016			2015
Unrecognized tax benefits at beginning of year	$	152,581		$	47,109		$	59,405
Increases resulting from tax positions taken during a prior period	7,482			110,894			3,456
Decreases resulting from tax positions taken during a prior period	(7,025		)	(3,285		)	(10,121		)
Increases resulting from tax positions taken during the current period	1,656			817			3,447
Decreases related to settlements with taxing authorities	(3,594		)	(123		)	(7,481		)
Reductions related to the lapse of statute of limitations	(19,492		)	(2,831		)	(1,597		)
Unrecognized tax benefits at end of year	$	131,608		$	152,581		$	47,109