Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

The provision for income taxes is comprised of the following:

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



	Year Ended December 31,
	2017		2016		2015
Statutory federal income tax rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
Income tax effect of:
Federal tax rate change resulting from tax reform	(61.4	)%	—	%	—	%
Investment income not subject to federal tax	(4.3	)%	(3.0	)%	(3.0	)%
Tax credits	(0.3	)%	(6.9	)%	(0.2	)%
State income taxes, net of federal benefit	2.3	%	2.3	%	3.2	%
Other, net	(0.1	)%	(0.4	)%	(0.9	)%
Effective federal income tax rate	(28.8	)%	27.0	%	34.1	%

A reconciliation of unrecognized tax benefits is as follows:



	Year Ended December 31,
	2017		2016			2015
Balance, beginning of year	$	17,268	$	23,093		$	26,890
Additions to tax positions in the current year	13,461		—			1,383
Additions to tax positions in the prior year	—		1,902			50
Reductions to tax positions from statutes expiring	—		(7,727		)	(5,230		)
Balance, end of year	$	30,729	$	17,268		$	23,093

The tax effect of temporary differences, which give rise to the deferred tax assets and liabilities, is as follows:



	December 31,
	2017				2016
	Deferred		Deferred		Deferred		Deferred
	tax asset		tax liability		tax asset		tax liability
Policyholder reserves	$	—	$	146,294	$	—	$	278,632
Deferred acquisition costs	—		20,405		—		28,071
Investment assets	—		185,940		—		233,583
Policyholder dividends	5,244		—		8,583		—
Net operating loss carryforward	32,662		—		96,693		—
Pension plan accrued benefit liability	51,289		—		83,562		—
Goodwill	—		23,287		—		35,306
Experience rated refunds	9,988		—		6,654		—
Tax credits	169,692		—		168,597		—
Other	13,848		—		19,592		—
Total deferred taxes	$	282,723	$	375,926	$	383,681	$	575,592

As of December 31, 2017, the subsidiaries had net operating loss carry forwards expiring as follows: