Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes consists of the following for the fiscal years ended December 29, 2017, December 30, 2016 and December 25, 2015:



	December 29, 2017			December 30, 2016			December 25, 2015
Current income tax expense (benefit):
Federal	$	3,342		$	(491	)	$	9,538
State	1,403			153			2,773
Total current income tax expense (benefit)	4,745			(338		)	12,311
Deferred income tax expense (benefit):
Federal	(1,059		)	2,441			(725		)
Foreign	215			49			19
State	141			501			(103		)
Total deferred income tax expense (benefit)	(703		)	2,991			(809		)
Total income tax expense	$	4,042		$	2,653		$	11,502

Income tax expense for the fiscal years ended December 29, 2017, December 30, 2016 and December 25, 2015 differed from amounts computed using the statutory federal income tax rate due to the following reasons:



	December 29, 2017			December 30, 2016			December 25, 2015
Statutory U.S. Federal tax	$	6,443		$	1,987		$	9,700
Differences due to:
State and local taxes, net of federal benefit	1,112			470			1,728
Foreign tax rate differential	(82		)	(168		)	(63		)
Impact of the Tax Act	(3,573		)	—			—
Other	142			364			137
Income tax expense	$	4,042		$	2,653		$	11,502

Deferred tax assets and liabilities at December 29, 2017 and December 30, 2016 consist of the following:



	December 29, 2017			December 30, 2016
Deferred tax assets:
Receivables and inventory	$	3,969		$	5,230
Accrued expenses	1,542			2,122
Self-insurance reserves	2,179			2,515
Net operating loss carryforwards	1,191			2,498
Stock compensation	1,017			1,122
Other	1,696			1,213
Total deferred tax assets	11,594			14,700
Deferred tax liabilities:
Property & equipment	(1,701		)	(1,759		)
Intangible assets	(10,784		)	(12,962		)
Contingent earn-out liabilities	(3,646		)	(5,020		)
Prepaid expenses and other	(1,189		)	(1,917		)
Total deferred tax liabilities	(17,320		)	(21,658		)
Valuation allowance	(289		)	—
Total net deferred tax liability	$	(6,015	)	$	(6,958	)

As of December 29, 2017, the Company completed its accounting for the impacts of the Tax Act and recognized an income tax benefit of $3,573 in the fiscal quarter ended December 29, 2017 due to the remeasurement of the Company's deferred tax assets and liabilities. The Company's effective income tax rate for fiscal 2017 would have been 41.4% exclusive of the impact of the Tax Act. The Company's actual effective income tax rate for fiscal 2017 was 22.0%.

The deferred tax provision results from the effects of net changes during the year in deferred tax assets and liabilities arising from temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities for financial reporting purposes and the amounts used for income tax purposes. The Company files income tax returns in the U.S. Federal and various state and local jurisdictions as well as the Canadian Federal and provincial districts. For Federal income tax purposes, the 2014 through 2017 tax years remain open for examination by the tax authorities under the normal three-year statute of limitations and the fact that we have not yet filed our tax return for 2017. For state tax purposes, the 2013 through 2017 tax years remain open for examination by the tax authorities under a four-year statute of limitations. The Company records interest and penalties, if any, in income tax expense.

At December 29, 2017, the Company recognized a valuation allowance of $289 which consisted of a full valuation allowance on its Canada net operating loss carryforward of $593 because it is not expected to be realizable in the future offset by a reduction in deferred tax liabilities related to finite-lived intangible assets acquired from Qzina in 2013.

For financial reporting purposes, net loss from operations before income taxes for our foreign subsidiaries was $691, $154 and $209 for the fiscal years ended December 29, 2017, December 30, 2016 and December 25, 2015, respectively. We had no foreign operations prior to fiscal 2013. It is our intention to indefinitely reinvest any earnings, therefore no U.S. taxes have been provided for these amounts. The amount of foreign accumulated earnings that have been permanently reinvested is immaterial.

As of December 29, 2017 and December 30, 2016, the Company did not have any uncertain tax positions.