Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

The components of income taxes were as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2016		2015			2014
Income tax expense from continuing operations⁽¹⁾	$	232,645	$	249,894		$	256,603
Shareholders’ equity:
Other comprehensive income (loss)	186,206		(411,646		)	424,089
Tax basis compensation expense (from the exercise of stock options and vesting of restricted stock awards) in excess of amounts recognized for financial reporting purposes ⁽¹⁾	—		(17,577		)	(18,524		)
	$	418,851	$	(179,329	)	$	662,168


(1)	Due to the adoption of ASU 2016-09, the excess tax benefits related to share-based awards are now recorded through income tax expense rather than additional paid in capital as described in Note 1—Significant Accounting Policies under "Stock Compensation."

Income Tax Expense from Continuing Operations

Income tax expense from continuing operations consists of:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2016		2015		2014
Current income tax expense	$	132,806	$	174,284	$	169,319
Deferred income tax expense	99,839		75,610		87,284
	$	232,645	$	249,894	$	256,603

Summary of Effective Income Tax Rate

The effective income tax rate differed from the expected 35% rate as shown below:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2016			%		2015			%		2014			%
Expected income taxes	$	270,282		35.0		$	268,165		35.0		$	274,637		35.0
Increase (reduction) in income taxes resulting from:
Low income housing investments	(18,202		)	(2.4	)	(19,031		)	(2.5	)	(17,541		)	(2.2	)
Share-based awards	(18,653		)	(2.4	)	—			—		—			—
Other	(782		)	(0.1	)	760			0.1		(493		)	—
Income tax expense from continuing operations	$	232,645		30.1		$	249,894		32.6		$	256,603		32.8

Significant Portions of Deferred Tax Assets and Deferred Tax Liabilities

The tax effects of temporary differences that gave rise to significant portions of the deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities are presented below:



	December 31,
	2016		2015
Deferred tax assets:
Fixed maturity investments	$	15,004	$	16,098
Carryover of tax losses	3,906		2,266
Total gross deferred tax assets	18,910		18,364
Deferred tax liabilities:
Unrealized gains	315,509		128,683
Employee and agent compensation	92,131		83,229
Deferred acquisition costs	975,873		921,799
Future policy benefits, unearned and advance premiums, and policy claims	391,451		340,854
Other liabilities	3,987		17,176
Total gross deferred tax liabilities	1,778,951		1,491,741
Net deferred tax liability	$	1,760,041	$	1,473,377