Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

11. Income Taxes

We file income tax returns in various federal, state and local jurisdictions. Tax years from 2016 forward remain open for examination by federal authorities. Tax years from 2014 forward remain open for all significant state and foreign authorities.

We account for uncertain tax positions pursuant to ASC Topic 740, “Income Taxes.” As of September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, the liability for uncertain tax positions totaled approximately $0.1 million and $0.3 million, respectively, which is included in “Other liabilities” on our Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. We recognize accrued interest related to

uncertain tax positions and penalties, if any, in income tax expense within the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations.

Certain of the Company’s undistributed earnings of our foreign subsidiaries are not permanently reinvested. Since foreign earnings have already been subject to United States income tax in 2017 as a result of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, we intend to repatriate foreign-held cash as needed.  We record deferred income tax attributable to foreign withholding taxes that would become payable should we decide to repatriate cash held in our foreign operations. As of September 30, 2020, and December 31, 2019, we have recorded deferred income taxes of approximately $0.5 million and $0.7 million, respectively, on the undistributed earnings of our foreign subsidiaries. A significant portion of the previously undistributed earnings to which the deferred income taxes were attributable were repatriated in 2019.

Income tax expense was $0.2 million for the third quarter of 2020 and $1.5 million for the first nine months of 2020 compared with income tax expense (benefit) of $0.7 million for the third quarter of 2019 and $(2.6) million for the first nine months of 2019. The effective income tax rate for the third quarter of 2020 was (468.2)% compared with 27.7% for the third quarter of 2019. The effective income tax rate for the first nine months of 2020 was 19.4% compared with (38.1%) for the first nine months of 2019. Our effective tax rate is affected by certain other permanent differences, including state income taxes, non-deductible incentive stock-based compensation, the Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income inclusion and Foreign-Derived Intangible Income deduction, tax credits, and differences in tax rates among the jurisdictions in which we operate. The effective income tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2019 was negative (i.e. income tax benefits), despite pre-tax income, due primarily to a tax benefit of $4.4 million from a tax position related to the 2018 divesture of Jiangyin Zhongli Industrial Technology Co. Ltd.