Note 8 - Income Taxes

6 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2022

Notes to Financial Statements

Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]

Note 8 - Income Taxes

 For the six months ended March 31, 2022, the Company recorded an income tax benefit of $6,070,000 on the pretax loss of $27,005,000.   The income tax benefit consisted of a tax benefit of $11,971,000 on the unrealized losses on marketable securities, a tax provision of $3,841,000 on the realized gains on marketable securities, a tax provision of $740,000 on income from operations, a tax benefit of $125,000 for the dividends received deduction and other permanent book and tax differences, and a tax provision of $1,445,000 for the effect of a change in state apportionment on the beginning of the year’s deferred tax liability.  Consequently, the overall effective tax rate for the six months ended March 31, 2022 was 22.5%, after including the taxes on the realized gains and unrealized losses on marketable securities.

For the six months ended March 31, 2021, the Company recorded a provision for income taxes of $24,915,000 on pretax income of $96,661,000.   This was the net result of applying the effective tax rate anticipated for fiscal 2021 to pretax income before the realized and unrealized gains on investments for the six months ended March 31, 2021. The effective rate of 19.28% was lower than the statutory rate of 21% primarily due to the dividends received deduction, which was partially offset by state taxes, resulting in a tax provision of $408,000. In addition, the Company recorded a tax provision of $19,680,000 on the unrealized gains on marketable securities, a tax provision of $4,804,000 on the realized gain on marketable securities and a tax provision of $23,000 for the effect of a change in state apportionment on the beginning of the year deferred tax liability. The overall effective tax rate for the six months ended March 31, 2021 was 25.8%, after including the taxes on the realized and unrealized gains on marketable securities.

The Company files consolidated federal income tax returns in the United States and with various state jurisdictions and is no longer subject to examinations for fiscal years before fiscal 2018 with regard to federal income taxes and fiscal 2017 for state income taxes.