Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Reconciliation Between Statutory Federal Income Tax Rate and Effective Income Tax

Our income tax benefit was $280.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2016 compared to income tax benefit of $338.7 million in 2015 and income tax expense of $396.5 million in 2014. Reconciliation between the statutory federal income tax rate and our effective income tax rate is as follows:


	Year Ended December 31,
	2016		2015			2014
Federal statutory tax rate	35.0	%		35.0	%		35.0	%
State	3.0			4.3			3.1
State apportionment rate change	1.0			(0.2	)		(0.2	)
Non-deductible executive compensation	(0.2	)		(0.1	)		0.2
Non-deductible MRD transaction costs	(0.6	)		—			—
Valuation allowances	(2.5	)		(6.8	)		0.2
Deficits in equity compensation	(0.7	)		—			—
Other	—			—			0.2
Consolidated effective tax rate	35.0	%		32.2	%		38.5	%

Income Tax (Benefit) Expense Attributable to Income Before Income Taxes

Income tax (benefit) expense attributable to income before income taxes consists of the following (in thousands):

		2016								2015										2014
		Current	Deferred			Total			Current		Deferred			Total				Current					Deferred		Total
U.S. federal	$	—	$	(266,105	)	$	(266,105	)	$	—	$	(328,257	)		$	(328,257	)		$		—	$		361,152		$	361,152
U.S. state and local		98		(14,743	)		(14,645	)		29		(10,449	)			(10,420	)				1			35,350			35,351
Total	$	98	$	(280,848	)	$	(280,750	)	$	29	$	(338,706	)		$	(338,677	)		$		1	$		396,502		$	396,503

Significant Components of Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities

Significant components of deferred tax assets and liabilities are as follows:

	December 31,
	2016			2015
	(in thousands)
Deferred tax assets:
Net operating loss carryforward	$	478,203		$	173,503
Deferred compensation		50,808			45,413
Equity compensation		29,528			25,940
AMT credits and other credits		13,644			4,437
Asset retirement obligation		99,000			101,142
Cumulative mark-to-market loss		73,404			—
Other		39,922			10,163
Valuation allowances:
Federal		(43,600	)		(42,500	)
State, net of federal benefit		(58,424	)		(41,516	)
Deferred compensation plans and other		(5,150	)		(3,607	)
Total deferred tax assets		677,335			272,975
Deferred tax liabilities:
Depreciation, depletion and investments		(1,619,922	)		(940,482	)
Cumulative mark-to-market gain		—			(109,845	)
Other		(756	)		(595	)
Total deferred tax liabilities		(1,620,678	)		(1,050,922	)
Net deferred tax liability	$	(943,343	)	$	(777,947	)

Change in Deferred Tax Asset Valuation Allowances

The change in our deferred tax asset valuation allowances are as follows (in thousands):

		2016			2015			2014
Balance at the beginning of the year	$	(87,623	)	$	(16,599	)	$	(14,781	)
Charged to provision for income taxes:
State net operating loss carryforwards		(17,374	)		(30,457	)		(5,800	)
Federal net operating carryforwards		(1,100	)		(42,500	)		—
Other state valuation allowances		500			(1,050	)		—
Other federal valuation allowances		(477	)		(511	)		363
Rabbi trust valuation allowance		(1,066	)		3,494			3,619
Other		(34	)		—			—
Balance at the end of the year	$	(107,174	)	$	(87,623	)	$	(16,599	)