Income Taxes

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2024

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

Note 25. Income Taxes

The Company is a REIT pursuant to Internal Revenue Code Section 856. Qualification as a REIT depends on the Company’s ability to meet various requirements imposed by the Internal Revenue Code, which relate to its organizational structure, diversity of stock ownership and certain requirements with regard to the nature of its assets and the sources of its income. As a REIT, the Company generally must distribute annually dividends equal to at least 90% of its net taxable income, subject to certain adjustments and excluding any net capital gain, in order for U.S. federal income tax not to apply to earnings that are distributed. To the extent the Company satisfies this distribution requirement but distributes less than 100% of its net taxable income, it will be subject to U.S. federal income tax on its undistributed taxable income. In addition, the Company will be subject to a 4% nondeductible excise tax if the actual amount paid to stockholders in a calendar year is less than a minimum amount specified under U.S. federal tax laws. Even if the Company qualifies as a REIT, it may be subject to certain U.S. federal income and excise taxes and state and local taxes on its income and assets. If the Company fails to maintain its qualification as a REIT for any taxable year, it may be subject to material penalties as well as federal, state and local income tax on its taxable income at regular corporate rates and it would not be able to qualify as a REIT for the subsequent four taxable years. As of June 30, 2024 and December 31, 2023, the Company was in compliance with all REIT requirements.

Certain subsidiaries have elected to be treated as taxable REIT subsidiaries (“TRSs”). TRSs permit the Company to participate in certain activities that would not be qualifying income if earned directly by the parent REIT, as long as these activities meet specific criteria, are conducted within the parameters of certain limitations established by the Internal Revenue Code and are conducted in entities which elect to be treated as taxable subsidiaries under the Internal Revenue

Code. To the extent these criteria are met, the Company will continue to maintain our qualification as a REIT. The Company’s TRSs engage in various real estate - related operations, including originating and securitizing commercial mortgage loans, and investments in real property. Such TRSs are not consolidated for federal income tax purposes but are instead taxed as corporations. For financial reporting purposes, a provision for current and deferred income taxes is established for the portion of earnings recognized by the Company with respect to its interest in TRSs.

The Company recognizes deferred tax assets and liabilities for the future tax consequences arising from differences between the carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities under GAAP and their respective tax bases. The Company evaluates its deferred tax assets for recoverability using a consistent approach which considers the relative impact of negative and positive evidence, including historical profitability and projections of future taxable income.

The provisions of ASC 740 require that carrying amounts of deferred tax assets be reduced by a valuation allowance if, based on the available evidence, it is more likely than not that some portion or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. As of December 31, 2023, the Company recorded net deferred tax assets of $21.1 million as a result of the acquisition of Broadmark taxable REIT subsidiary. A full valuation allowance was recorded against these deferred tax assets at year-end as it was more likely than not that these assets would not be realized. In the first quarter of 2024, the Company completed a reorganization which will allow the Company to recover the deferred tax assets recorded, and as such, the valuation allowance was released in the first quarter. There was no such valuation allowance activity during the three months ended June 30, 2024.

The Company’s framework for assessing the recoverability of deferred tax assets requires it to weigh all available evidence, including the sustainability of recent profitability required to realize the deferred tax assets, the cumulative net income in its consolidated statements of operations in recent years, the future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, and the carryforward periods for any carryforwards of net operating losses.