Income taxes

The provision for income taxes in the periods presented is based upon the income (loss) before income taxes (in thousands):



	Three Months Ended June 30,					Six Months Ended June 30,
	2019		2018			2019		2018
Income tax benefit (provision)	$	205	$	(1,080	)	$	35	$	(1,718	)

The Company’s income tax (provision) benefit in the three and six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2018 was primarily related to income taxes of the Company’s non-U.S. operations.

The Company conducts its business globally and its operating income is subject to varying rates of tax in the U.S., China and Japan. Consequently, the Company’s effective tax rate is dependent upon the geographic distribution of its earnings or losses and the tax laws and regulations in each geographical region. Historically, the Company has experienced net losses in the U.S. and in the short term, expects this trend to continue.

Due to historical losses in the U.S., the Company has a full valuation allowance on its U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets. Management continues to evaluate the realizability of deferred tax assets and the related valuation allowance. If management's assessment of the deferred tax assets or the corresponding valuation allowance were to change, the Company would record the related adjustment to income during the period in which management makes the determination.

On December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “TCJA”) was enacted which, among other things, lowered the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, requires companies to pay a one-time transition tax on earnings of certain foreign subsidiaries that were previously tax deferred and creates Global Intangible Low Taxed Income ("GILTI") to tax certain foreign sourced earnings. As of December 31, 2018, the Company has concluded the accounting under the TCJA within the time period set forth in Staff Accounting Bulletin 118. There was no provision impact of TCJA on the 2018 financial statements due to full valuation allowance on US deferred tax assets. In addition, the Company has elected to treat GILTI inclusion accounting impact as a current period expense. As of June 30, 2019, the TCJA has no material impact on the financial statements due to full valuation allowance on US deferred tax assets.

The Company adopted ASU 2016-16 on a modified retrospective basis effective January 1, 2018. Upon adoption of this standard on January 1, 2018, the Company recorded $1.8 million to accumulated deficit balance for intra-entity transfer of an asset other than inventory in prior years.

As of June 30, 2019, there were no material changes to either the nature or the amounts of the uncertain tax positions previously determined for the year ended December 31, 2018.