Note 9 - Income Taxes

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2016

9. Income Taxes

For the three-month and six-month periods ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, our income tax expense and effective income tax rates were as follows (dollars in thousands):

	Three Months Ended						Six Months Ended
	June 30,						June 30,
	2016			2015			2016			2015
Income tax expense	$	11,897		$	8,128		$	18,312		$	12,068
Effective income tax rate		40.2	%		40.2	%		40.7	%		40.5	%

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 six-month period ended June 30, 2016, these estimates

increased or decreased our statutory Federal income tax rate of 35.0% to our effective income tax rate of 40.7% as follows: state income taxes added 4.4%, permanent differences between our U.S. GAAP income and taxable income added 1.2%, and a discrete share-based compensation adjustment added 0.5%, while adjustments to our reserve for uncertain tax positions resulted in a reduction of 0.4%. For the six-month period ended June 30, 2015, these estimates increased or decreased our statutory Federal income tax rate of 35.0% to our effective income tax rate of 40.5% as follows: state income taxes added 4.5% and permanent differences between our U.S. GAAP income and taxable income added 1.6%, and discrete share-based compensation adjustments added

0.3%, while adjustments to our reserve for uncertain tax positions resulted in a reduction of 0.9%.