Income Taxes

TRS Holdings and Observatory TRS are taxable entities and their consolidated provision for income taxes consisted of the following for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 (amounts in thousands):



	For the Year Ended December 31,
	2016			2015			2014
Current:
Federal	$	(3,632	)	$	(2,714	)	$	(3,253	)
State and local	(2,055		)	(1,502		)	(1,792		)
Total current	(5,687		)	(4,216		)	(5,045		)
Deferred:
Federal	(291		)	169			247
State and local	(168		)	98			143
Total deferred	(459		)	267			390
Income tax expense	$	(6,146	)	$	(3,949	)	$	(4,655	)

The effective income tax rate is 44.8%, 44.7% and 44.7% for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively. The actual tax provision differed from that computed at the federal statutory corporate rate as follows (amounts in thousands):



	For the Year Ended December 31,
	2016			2015			2014
Federal tax expense at 34% statutory rate	$	(4,629	)	$	(3,003	)	$	(3,576	)
State income taxes, net of federal benefit	(1,517		)	(946		)	(1,079		)
Income tax expense	$	(6,146	)	$	(3,949	)	$	(4,655	)

The income tax effects of temporary differences that give rise to deferred tax assets are presented below as of December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014 (amounts in thousands):



	2016		2015		2014
Deferred tax assets:
Deferred revenue on unredeemed observatory admission ticket sales	$	198	$	267	$	390

Deferred tax assets at December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively, are attributable to the inclusion of deferred revenue on Observatory admission ticket sales not redeemed at year-end in determining income for tax reporting purposes. No valuation allowance has been recorded against the deferred tax asset because the Company believes that the deferred tax asset will, more likely than not, be realized. This determination is based on the Observatory TRS’s anticipated future taxable income and the reversal of the deferred tax asset.

At December 31, 2016, 2015 and 2014, the TRS entities have no amount of unrecognized tax benefits.

For tax years 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013, the United States federal and state tax returns are open for examination.