Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

For each interim reporting period, the Company estimates the effective tax rate expected for the full fiscal year and uses that estimated rate in providing for income taxes on a current year-to-date basis.

Deferred income taxes are provided to reflect the future tax consequences of temporary differences between the tax basis of assets and liabilities and their reported amounts in the financial statements. The Company’s deferred tax assets have been reduced by a valuation allowance due to a determination that it is more likely than not that some or all of the deferred assets will not be realized based on the weight of all available evidence. The Company continues to closely monitor and weigh all available evidence, including both positive and negative, in making its determination whether to maintain a valuation allowance. As a result of the significant weight placed on the Company's cumulative negative earnings position, the Company continued to maintain a full valuation allowance against its net deferred tax asset at March 31, 2020. As a result, the Company had no federal or state income tax expense and recorded an insignificant income tax benefit for the three-month period ended March 31, 2020. The benefit is related to previously sequestered prior year AMT refund amounts released to the Company during the current quarter. The Company has no remaining AMT credits to be refunded. The Company had no federal or state income tax expense or benefit for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2019.

Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) Section 382 addresses company ownership changes and specifically limits the utilization of certain deductions and other tax attributes on an annual basis following an ownership change. As a result of the Chapter 11 reorganization and related transactions, the Company experienced an ownership change within the meaning of IRC Section 382 during 2016 that subjected certain of the Company’s tax attributes, including net operating losses ("NOLs"), to an IRC Section 382 limitation. This limitation has not resulted in cash taxes for any period subsequent to the ownership change. Since the 2016 ownership change, the Company has generated additional NOLs and other tax attributes that are not currently subject to an IRC Section 382 limitation. The Company's ability to use NOLs and other tax attributes to reduce taxable income and income taxes could be materially impacted by a future IRC 382 ownership change. Future transactions involving the Company's stock, including those outside of the Company's control, could cause an IRC 382 ownership change resulting in a limitation on tax attributes currently not limited and a more restrictive limitation on tax attributes currently subject to the previous IRC 382 limitation.

The Company’s only taxing jurisdiction is the United States (federal and state). The Company’s tax years 2016 to present remain open for federal examination. Additionally, tax years 2005 through 2015 remain subject to examination for determining the amount of remaining federal net operating loss and other carryforwards. The number of years open for state tax audits varies, depending on the state, but are generally from three to five years.

On March 27, 2020, the President of the United States signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act. The CARES Act provides relief to corporate taxpayers by permitting a five year carryback of 2018-2020 NOLs, removing the 80% limitation on the carryback of those NOLs, increasing the Section 163(j) 30% limitation on interest expense deductibility to 50% of adjusted taxable income for 2019 and 2020, and accelerates refunds for minimum tax credit carryforwards, along with a few other provisions. Enactment of the CARES Act did not have a material impact on the Company's tax provision during the three-months ended March 31, 2020.