Note 10 - Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2015

. Income Taxes

For the three-month and nine-month periods ended September 30, 2015 and 2014, our income tax expense and effective income tax rates were

as follows (dollars in thousands)

	Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended
	September 30,						September 30,
	2015			2014			2015			2014
Income tax expense	$	4,118		$	8,608		$	16,186		$	10,343
Effective income tax rate		38.4	%		38.2	%		40.0	%		38.1	%

We estimate our differences between taxable income or loss and recorded 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, 2015, these estimates increased or decreased our statutory Federal income tax rate of 35.0% to our effective income tax rate of

40.0%

as follows: state income taxes added 4.5%, while permanent differences between our U.S. GAAP income and taxable income added 1.6%, discrete items resulted in a reduction of 0.2% and adjustments to our reserve for uncertain tax positions resulted in a reduction of 0.9%.

For the nine-month period ended September 30, 2014, these estimates increased or decreased our statutory Federal income tax rate of 35.0% to our effective income tax rate of 38.1% as follows; state income taxes added

3.8%,

permanent differences between our U.S. GAAP income and taxable income resulted in a reduction of

0.5%

, and adjustments to our reserve for uncertain tax positions resulted in a reduction of

0.2%