8.	Income taxes

We record our interim provision for income taxes based on our estimated annual effective tax rate, as well as certain items discrete to the current period. The effective tax rates for the three months ended January 31, 2017 and January 31, 2016 were 29.0% and 12.6%, respectively.

On December 18, 2015, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 was enacted which retroactively reinstated the Federal Research and Development Tax Credit (Federal R&D Tax Credit) as of January 1, 2015, and made it permanent. As a result, our income tax provision for the three months ended January 31, 2016 includes a discrete tax benefit of $2,025 primarily related to 2015. The tax rate for the three months ended January 31, 2016 also includes a discrete tax benefit of $6,184 related to dividends paid from previously taxed foreign earnings generated prior to 2015.