Discontinued Operations

12 Months Ended

Dec. 30, 2012

Discontinued Operation, Income (Loss) from Discontinued Operation Disclosures [Abstract]

Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations, Disclosure [Text Block]

3. Discontinued Operations

On May 7, 2012, the Company completed the Spin-off of Fiesta, a wholly owned subsidiary of Carrols which included the Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana restaurant brands, through the distribution in the form of a pro rata dividend of all of Fiesta's issued and outstanding common stock to Carrols Restaurant Group’s stockholders whereby each stockholder of Carrols Restaurant Group on April 26, 2012 received one share of Fiesta’s common stock for every one share of the Company's common stock held. As a result of the Spin-off, Fiesta is now an independent public company whose common stock is traded on The NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “FRGI.” At the date of the Spin-off, the dividend of Fiesta common stock to our stockholders resulted in a distribution of net assets of $9.9 million to Fiesta. In the fourth quarter of 2012, Carrols made additional distributions of $0.9 million related to the allocation to Fiesta of estimated 2012 net operating loss carryforwards.

In connection with the Spin-off, on April 24, 2012 Carrols Restaurant Group and Carrols entered into several agreements with Fiesta that govern the Company’s post Spin-off relationship with Fiesta, including a Separation and Distribution Agreement, Tax Matters Agreement, Employee Matters Agreement and Transition Services Agreement. Amounts earned by Carrols under the Transition Services Agreement were $3.8 million during the year ended December 30, 2012.

As a result of the Spin-off, there are no remaining Fiesta assets and liabilities as of December 30, 2012. Fiesta's assets and liabilities were included in the consolidated balance sheet at January 1, 2012 and have not been reclassified to discontinued operations. The consolidated statements of operations and consolidated statements of cash flows present Fiesta’s businesses for the period from January 3, 2011 through May 7, 2012 and the years ended January 1, 2012 and January 2, 2011 as discontinued operations.

The consolidated statements of operations for periods through the completion of the Spin-off included certain general and administrative expenses associated with administrative support to Fiesta for executive management, information systems and certain accounting, legal and other administrative functions, which had previously been allocated to Fiesta. The allocation of certain of these expenses do not qualify for classification within discontinued operations, and therefore are included as general and administrative expenses within continuing operations. In addition, certain expenses directly related to the Spin-off which had previously been allocated to both the Company and Fiesta have been included in discontinued operations.

The following table details Fiesta's revenues and income (loss) from operations and expenses associated with the spin-off which have been reported in discontinued operations:

	Twelve Months Ended
	December 30, 2012			January 1, 2012		January 2, 2011
Revenues	$	175,364		$	474,968	$	439,071
Income (loss) from discontinued operations before income taxes	(625		)	17,591		15,070
Net income (loss) from discontinued operations	$	(72	)	$	11,742	$	10,106