Note 9 - Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]

9.        Income Taxes

For the three-month and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2012 and 2011, our income tax expense and effective tax rates were as follows (dollars in thousands):

	Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended
	September 30,						September 30,
	2012			2011			2012			2011
Income tax expense	$	10,035		$	1,073		$	19,250		$	791
Effective income tax rate		38.7	%		35.1	%		38.9	%		35.1	%

We estimate our differences between taxable income or loss and U.S. GAAP income or loss on an annual basis. Our tax provision for each quarter is based upon these full year projections which are revised each reporting period. These projections incorporate estimates of permanent differences between U.S. GAAP income or loss and taxable income or loss, state income taxes and adjustments to our liability for unrecognized tax benefits to adjust our statutory Federal income tax rate of 35.0% to our effective income tax rate.  

For the nine-month period ended September 30, 2012, these estimates increased or decreased our statutory Federal income tax rate of 35.0% to our effective income tax rate of 38.9% as follows: state income taxes added 4.6% and permanent differences between our U.S. GAAP income and taxable income added 0.5%, while adjustments to our reserve for uncertain tax positions resulted in a reduction of 1.2%.

For the nine-month period ended September 30, 2011, these estimates increased or decreased our statutory Federal income tax rate of 35.0% to our effective income tax rate of 35.1% as follows: state income taxes added 7.0% and permanent differences between our U.S. GAAP income and taxable income added 4.4%, while adjustments to our reserve for uncertain tax positions resulted in a reduction of 10.1% and other items resulted in a reduction of 1.2%.