Income Tax Expense

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Income Tax Expense [Abstract]

Income Tax Expense

2. Income Tax Expense

As part of the process of preparing our consolidated financial statements we are required to determine our income taxes in each of the jurisdictions in which we operate. This process involves estimating our actual current tax expense together with assessing temporary differences resulting from recognition of items for income tax and accounting purposes. These differences result in deferred tax assets and liabilities, which are included within our consolidated balance sheet. We must then assess the likelihood that our deferred tax assets will be recovered from taxable income during the carryback period or in the future; and to the extent we believe that recovery is not likely, we must establish a valuation allowance. To the extent we establish a valuation allowance or increase this allowance in a period, we must reflect this increase as an expense within the tax provision in the statement of operations. We do not provide for income taxes on undistributed earnings of foreign subsidiaries, as our current intention is to permanently reinvest these earnings.

We recognize, measure, present and disclose in our financial statements uncertain tax positions that we have taken or expect to take on a tax return. We operate in multiple taxing jurisdictions, both within the United States and outside of the United States, and may be subject to audits from various tax authorities regarding transfer pricing, the deductibility of certain expenses, intercompany transactions, and other matters. Within specific countries, we may be subject to audit by various tax authorities operating within the country and may be subject to different statutes of limitation expiration dates. Management’s judgment is required in determining our provision for income taxes, our deferred tax assets and liabilities, liabilities for uncertain tax positions, and any valuation allowance recorded against our net deferred tax assets. We will continue to monitor the realizability of our deferred tax assets and adjust the valuation allowance accordingly.

Our policy is to classify interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits as income tax expense. This policy has been consistently applied in all periods.

We have reviewed the tax positions taken, or to be taken, in our tax returns for all tax years currently open to examination by a taxing authority. As of September 30, 2012, the gross amount of unrecognized tax benefits exclusive of interest and penalties was $325,000. We have identified no uncertain tax positions for which it is reasonably possible that the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits will significantly increase or decrease within the twelve months ending September 30, 2013. There was a $4,000 decrease in the liability during the nine months ended September 30, 2012 for certain tax positions which expired. We remain subject to examination until the statute of limitations expires for each respective tax jurisdiction. The U.S federal statute of limitations will be open with respect to these tax positions until 2015. The net decrease in the liability during the nine months ended September 30, 2012, was as follows:

	(in thousands)
Unrecognized tax benefits at December 31, 2011	$	329
Decreases in unrecognized tax benefits based on positions taken in current period		(4	)
Unrecognized tax benefits at September 30, 2012	$	325

As of September 30, 2012, a summary of the tax years that remain subject to examination in our most significant tax jurisdictions is as follows:

United States—Federal	2009 and forward
Germany	2007 and forward
Italy	2006 and forward
Japan	2005 and forward