Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

The components of the provision for income taxes reflected on the consolidated statements of income are set forth below:



	For The Years Ended December 31,
	2014		2013			2012
	(in thousands)
Current taxes:
U.S. federal	$	12,256	$	19,782		$	34,752
State and local	2,415		1,709			4,747
Foreign	5,778		10,743			7,116
Total current tax expense	20,449		32,234			46,615
Deferred taxes:
U.S. federal	1,454		(8,711		)	(15,119		)
State and local	493		(265		)	(796		)
Foreign	1,686		1,266			(2,317		)
Total deferred tax (benefit) expense	3,633		(7,710		)	(18,232		)
Total tax expense	$	24,082	$	24,524		$	28,383

Significant components of the Company's net deferred tax assets and liabilities are set forth below:



	As of December 31,
	2014			2013
	(in thousands)
Deferred tax assets:
Compensation and benefits	$	31,677		$	39,991
Depreciation and amortization	2,699			3,077
Unrealized loss on investments	—			205
Cumulative translation adjustment	10,942			5,266
Operating loss carryforwards	4,594			3,447
Capital loss carryforwards	2,581			2,845
Foreign tax credit carryforwards	351			4,252
Other financial accruals	332			57
Valuation allowances	(2,932		)	(4,938		)
Total deferred tax assets	50,244			54,202
Deferred tax liabilities:
Unrealized gain on investments	362			—
Repatriation of foreign earnings	—			2,159
Other financial accruals	—			186
Total deferred tax liabilities	362			2,345
Net deferred tax asset	$	49,882		$	51,857

A reconciliation of the statutory U.S. federal income tax rate of 35.0% to the Company’s effective income tax rate is set forth below:



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2014		2013		2012
U.S. statutory tax rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
Increase related to state and local taxes, net of U.S. income tax benefit	3.3		1.3		3.6
Benefits and taxes related to foreign operations	(3.3	)	(4.1	)	(1.4	)
Valuation allowances	—		1.5		2.7
Sale of merchant banking business	(0.1	)	(0.1	)	(0.1	)
Other	0.8		0.8		0.5
Effective income tax rate	35.7	%	34.4	%	40.3	%