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PROVISION FOR INCOME TAXES
6 Months Ended
May 31, 2014
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
PROVISION FOR INCOME TAXES
PROVISION FOR INCOME TAXES
The effective tax rate was 66% and 26% for the three months ended May 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively and 35% and 14% for the six months ended May 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively.
In the three months ended May 31, 2014, we recognized a discrete tax expense of $0.5 million, primarily related to withholding taxes.

In the six months ended May 31, 2014, we recognized a discrete tax expense of $0.2 million, primarily related to a $2.5 million tax expense for withholding taxes, offset by $1.1 million of tax benefits from the expiration of various statutes of limitations and $1.2 million of the prior year's foreign tax return refund.

In the three months ended May 31, 2013, we recognized a discrete provision of $1.8 million related to estimated withholding taxes in jurisdictions where we do not expect to benefit from a foreign tax credit.

In the six months ended May 31, 2013, we recognized a discrete provision of $0.3 million related to $3.6 million of estimated withholding taxes, offset by $3.3 million of tax benefits from retroactive legislative reinstatement of the federal research and development credit.
We recognize the withholding taxes as discrete items because of the high variability of withholding tax rates by country and the difficulty in forecasting the exact country of future revenue.
The provision for the six month periods ended May 31, 2014 and 2013 reflects a forecasted annual tax rate of 34% and 14%, respectively, offset by discrete items which are recognized in the period they occur. The forecasted tax rate reflects the benefits resulting from the reorganization of certain foreign entities, lower foreign taxes, domestic manufacturing incentives, and federal and state research and development credits, partially offset by the impact of certain stock compensation charges and state income taxes. The federal research and development credits expired on December 31, 2013.
We use the single sales factor apportionment for California state taxation, which is expected to lower our future taxable state income. This reduction in taxable income may affect the extent to which we can benefit from $16.9 million (net of reserve for uncertain tax positions) research and development credit carryforwards and $7.1 million net operating loss carryforwards. If we determine that it is more likely than not that we will not be able to fully utilize these carryforwards, we will recognize a valuation allowance against the related deferred tax assets.
During the three months ended May 31, 2014, the amount of gross unrecognized tax benefits increased by approximately $3.4 million. The total amount of gross unrecognized tax benefits was $90.7 million as of May 31, 2014, of which $76.1 million would benefit tax expense if realized. We elected to include interest expense and penalties accrued on unrecognized tax benefits as a component of our income tax expense. We are subject to routine corporate income tax audits in the United States, India, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom and other foreign jurisdictions. Due to uncertainty of tax audit outcomes and the timing of tax audit settlements, we are unable to estimate the changes to our unrecognized tax benefit over the next twelve months.