Income Taxes

Income tax expense was as follows:



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2016			2015
Current income tax expense	$	13,824		$	15,830
Deferred income tax expense (benefit)	(4,395		)	(3,748		)
Income tax expense, as reported	$	9,429		$	12,082

Effective tax rate	12.1		%	14.3		%

Net deferred tax liabilities totaled $53.3 million at March 31, 2016 and $22.5 million at December 31, 2015. No valuation allowance for deferred tax assets was recorded at March 31, 2016 as management believes it is more likely than not that all of the deferred tax assets will be realized because they were supported by recoverable taxes paid in prior years. There were no unrecognized tax benefits during any of the reported periods. Interest and/or penalties related to income taxes are reported as a component of income tax expense. Such amounts were not significant during the reported periods.

We file income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction. We are no longer subject to U.S. federal income tax examinations by tax authorities for years before 2012.