Note 10 - Income Taxes

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2015

Notes to Financial Statements

Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]

Note

10

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Income Taxes

The Company is subject to income tax in multiple jurisdictions and the use of estimates is required to determine the provision for income taxes. For the three months ended June 30, 2015 and 2014, the Company recorded an income tax provision of $5.6 million and $5.0 million, respectively. For the six months ended June 30, 2015 and 2014, the Company recorded an income tax provision of $10.6 million and $9.4 million, respectively. The income tax provision is based on the estimated annual effective tax rate for the year applied to pre-tax income. The effective income tax rate for the three months ended June 30, 2015 was 32.5 percent compared with 31.1 percent in the same period of the prior year. The effective income tax rate for the six months ended June 30, 2015 was 32.3 percent compared with 30.9 percent in the same period of the prior year.

The effective income tax rate for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015 differs from the U.S. federal statutory rate of 35 percent due primarily to the mix of income earned in domestic and foreign tax jurisdictions and deductions for which the Company qualifies.

The Company had liabilities related to unrecognized tax benefits totaling $1.5 million at June 30

, 2015 and $1.3 million at December 31, 2014, all of which, if recognized, would affect the Company’s effective tax rate. The Company recognizes interest and penalties related to income tax matters in income tax expense, and reports the liability in current or long-term income taxes payable as appropriate.

During the six months ended June 30, 2015, the Company increased its current year uncertain tax positions by $0.2 million. The increase was due to certain tax positions not meeting the more-likely-than-not standard for accounting for uncertain tax positions under the Company’s current facts and circumstances.

Based upon the information available as of June 30, 2015, the Company anticipates the amount of uncertain tax positions will change in the next twelve months; however, the change is not expected to be material.