Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes is comprised of the following:



	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2017			2016			2017		2016
Current expense (benefit)	$	27,585		$	(1,399	)	$	58,845	$	41,725
Deferred (benefit) expense	(5,897		)	16,694			6,128		37,318
Total income tax provision	$	21,688		$	15,295		$	64,973	$	79,043

The following table presents a reconciliation between the statutory federal income tax rate and the Company’s effective income tax rate:



	Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2017		2016
Statutory federal income tax rate	35.0	%	35.0	%
Income tax effect of:
Investment income not subject to federal tax	(3.9	)%	(2.7	)%
Tax credits	(0.3	)%	(7.3	)%
State income taxes, net of federal benefit	2.8	%	2.5	%
Other, net	(0.5	)%	(0.4	)%
Effective income tax rate	33.1	%	27.1	%

The Company recorded an increase of $4,694 and a decrease of $5,824 in unrecognized tax benefits during the nine months ended September 30, 2017, and 2016, respectively. The Company anticipates additional increases to its unrecognized tax benefits of $6,000 to $7,000 in the next twelve months. The Company expects that the majority of the increase in its unrecognized tax benefits will not impact the effective tax rate.

The Company files income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction and various states. With few exceptions, the Company is no longer subject to U.S. federal income tax examinations by tax authorities for years 2013 and prior. Tax years 2014 through 2016 are open to federal examination by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). The Company does not expect significant increases or decreases to unrecognized tax benefits relating to federal, state, or local audits.