Income Taxes

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

(6)	Income Taxes

Our income tax benefit was $500.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2019 compared to $30.5 million in 2018 and $251.0 million in 2017. Reconciliation between the statutory federal income tax rate and our effective income tax rate is as follows:


	Year Ended December 31,
	2019		2018			2017
Federal statutory tax rate	21.0	%		21.0	%		35.0	%
Federal rate change	—			—			(406.7	)
State	3.8			(0.3	)		(0.7	)
State rate and law change	1.8			0.9			(1.3	)
Non-deductible executive compensation	—			—			0.7
Valuation allowances	(3.8	)		(0.4	)		36.8
Equity compensation	(0.2	)		(0.1	)		30.2
Goodwill impairment	—			(19.4	)		—
Other	—			—			0.3
Consolidated effective tax rate	22.6	%		1.7	%		(305.7	%)

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

		2019								2018										2017
		Current	Deferred			Total			Current		Deferred			Total				Current					Deferred			Total
U.S. federal	$	—	$	(434,585	)	$	(434,585	)	$	—	$	(25,322	)		$	(25,322	)		$		—	$		(302,507	)	$	(302,507	)
U.S. state and local		6,147		(71,853	)		(65,706	)		—		(5,167	)			(5,167	)				17			51,464			51,481
Total	$	6,147	$	(506,438	)	$	(500,291	)	$	—	$	(30,489	)		$	(30,489	)		$		17	$		(251,043	)	$	(251,026	)

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

	December 31,
	2019			2018
	(in thousands)
Deferred tax assets:
Net operating loss carryforward	$	581,324		$	542,847
Deferred compensation		16,815			19,844
Equity compensation		7,188			8,152
AMT credits and other credits		—			3,296
Asset retirement obligation		60,064			78,126
Interest expense carryover		18,035			19,444
Lease deferred tax assets		16,450			—
Other		11,072			11,048
Valuation allowances:
Federal		(32,530	)		(18,975	)
State, net of federal benefit		(158,296	)		(101,372	)
Total deferred tax assets		520,122			562,410
Deferred tax liabilities:
Depreciation and depletion		(639,581	)		(1,207,784	)
Cumulative mark-to-market gain		(25,957	)		(21,294	)
Lease deferred tax liabilities		(14,780	)		—
Total deferred tax liabilities		(680,318	)		(1,229,078	)
Net deferred tax liability	$	(160,196	)	$	(666,668	)

At December 31, 2019, deferred tax liabilities exceeded deferred tax assets by $160.2 million. As of December 31, 2019, we have a state valuation allowance of $158.3 million related to state tax attributes in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. As of December 31, 2019, we have federal valuation allowances of $32.5 million primarily related to our federal net operating loss carryforward, federal basis differences and charitable contribution carryforward. See the table below for activity related to these valuation allowances.

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

		2019			2018			2017
Balance at the beginning of the year	$	(120,347	)	$	(125,134	)	$	(107,174	)
Charged to provision for income taxes:
State net operating loss carryforwards		(25,710	)		(23,926	)		(11,612	)
Federal net operating loss carryforwards		13,780			11,716			15,385
Non-recoverable deferred tax assets		(28,208	)		—			—
Other state valuation allowances		(31,214	)		16,380			(23,790	)
Other federal valuation allowances		346			494			(247	)
Other		527			123			2,304
Balance at the end of the year	$	(190,826	)	$	(120,347	)	$	(125,134	)

At December 31, 2019, we had federal net operating loss (“NOL”) carryforwards of $2.1 billion. This includes $1.4 billion that expires between 2020 and 2037 and also includes $712.8 million of NOL carryforwards generated after 2017 that do not expire. We have state NOL carryforwards in Pennsylvania of $856.3 million that expire between 2027 and 2038 and in Louisiana, we have state NOL carryforwards of $561.1 million that expire between 2034 and 2039. We file consolidated tax returns in the United States federal jurisdiction. We file separate company state income tax returns in Louisiana and Pennsylvania and file consolidated or unitary state income tax returns in Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia. We are subject to U.S. federal income tax examinations for the years 2016 and after and we are subject to various state tax examinations for years 2015 and after. We have not extended the statute of limitation period in any income tax jurisdiction. Our policy is to recognize interest related to income tax expense in interest expense and penalties in general and administrative expense. We do not have any accrued interest or penalties related to tax amounts as of December 31, 2019. Throughout 2019 and 2018, our unrecognized tax benefits were not material.