Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

For the three months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, the Company recorded income tax expense of $0.1 million and $2.3 million, respectively, which reflects an effective tax rate of (1.0)% and 112.5%, respectively. The decrease in the income tax expense for the three months ended March 31, 2022 was primarily driven by the Company benefiting from year to date losses in the U.S. jurisdiction.

The Company had a valuation allowance against certain U.S., Israel, and German deferred tax assets as of both March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021. The Company evaluates on a quarterly basis whether the deferred tax assets are realizable which requires significant judgement. The Company considers all available positive and negative evidence, including historical operating performance and expectations of future operating performance.

As of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, the Company has $4.8 million and $4.7 million of unrecognized tax benefits, respectively. Of the $4.8 million of unrecognized tax benefits as of March 31, 2022, $1.4 million would impact the effective tax rate if recognized, and $2.9 million would result would result in an increase in the valuation allowance. As of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, the Company has recorded $0.7 million of interest and penalties for both periods related to unrecognized tax benefits. The Company’s policy is to classify interest and penalties as a component of income tax expense.

As a matter of course, the Company may be audited by Germany, U.S. Federal and state, Israel, France, the U.K. and other foreign tax authorities within which it operates. From time to time, these audits result in proposed assessments. The Company was notified during 2020 that the Israeli tax authorities were auditing Spark Networks Ltd. for the tax years 2016-2019. There is minimal activity in the entity and, while we do not expect adverse findings, any potential finding would result in a reduction of the net operating loss carryforward which has a full valuation allowance against it. The Company received correspondence from the German tax authorities auditing Spark SE for the tax years 2017-2018, as well as Spark GmbH for the tax years 2016-2018 after March 31, 2022. While the company is in the process of assessing the correspondence, there does not appear to be any material changes or adjustments.

Based on the current status of Germany, U.S. Federal, state, local and other foreign audits, the Company does not expect the amount of unrecognized tax benefits to significantly decrease in the next 12 months as a result of settlements of tax audits and/or the expiration of statutes of limitations.