Income Taxes

Income tax expense was as follows:



	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2018			2017			2018			2017
Current income tax expense (benefit)	$	(1,152	)	$	15,224		$	955		$	44,636
Deferred income tax expense (benefit)	16,312			(5,332		)	39,198			(9,505		)
Income tax expense, as reported	$	15,160		$	9,892		$	40,153		$	35,131

Effective tax rate	11.4		%	9.6		%	10.7		%	11.8		%

Net deferred tax assets totaled $54.1 million at September 30, 2018 and $31.7 million at December 31, 2017. No valuation allowance for deferred tax assets was recorded at September 30, 2018 as management believes it is more likely than not that all of the deferred tax assets will be realized against deferred tax liabilities and projected future taxable income.

The effective income tax rates differed from the U.S. statutory federal income tax rates of 21% during 2018 and 35% during 2017 primarily due to the effect of tax-exempt income from loans, securities and life insurance policies and the income tax effects associated with stock-based compensation. The effective income tax rates for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2017 were also impacted by the correction of an over-accrual of taxes that resulted from incorrectly classifying certain tax-exempt loans as taxable for federal income tax purposes since 2013. As a result, we recognized tax benefits totaling $3.7 million, which included $2.9 million related to the 2013 through 2016 tax years and $756 thousand related to the first and second quarters of 2017. 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 2015.

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was enacted on December 22, 2017 as more fully discussed in the 2017 Form 10-K. Among other things, the new law established a new, flat corporate federal statutory income tax rate of 21%. As a result, we remeasured our deferred tax assets and liabilities based on the new tax rate and recognized a provisional net tax benefit related to the remeasurement totaling $4.0 million. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we are still analyzing certain aspects of the new law and refining our calculations, which could affect the measurement of these assets and liabilities or give rise to new deferred tax amounts. Nonetheless, there has been no change to the provisional net tax benefit we recorded during the fourth quarter of 2017.