Income Taxes Income Taxes (Notes)

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2015

The income tax expense included in the accompanying statements of income consists of the following (in thousands):



	Three Months Ended June 30,						Six Months Ended June 30,
	2015			2014			2015			2014
Current income tax expense	$	2,451		$	1,342		$	5,889		$	3,358
Deferred income tax (benefit) expense	(484		)	(504		)	(2,019		)	(1,361		)
Income tax expense	$	1,967		$	838		$	3,870		$	1,997

Net deferred tax assets totaled $18.9 million at June 30, 2015 and $12.7 million at December 31, 2014. No valuation allowance for deferred tax assets was recorded at June 30, 2015 or December 31, 2014, as management believes it is more likely than not that all of the deferred tax assets will be realized in future years. Unrecognized tax benefits were not material at June 30, 2015.

We recognized income tax expense of $2.0 million and $3.9 million, for an effective tax rate of 15.0% and 15.9%, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015, respectively, compared to income tax expense of $838,000 and $2.0 million, for an effective tax rate of 7.4% and 9.7%, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2014. The higher effective tax rate for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015 was due to a decrease in tax-exempt income as a percentage of pre-tax income as compared to the same period in 2014. We file income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction and in certain states. We are no longer subject to U.S. federal income tax examinations by tax authorities for years before 2011.