Income Tax Matters

The provision for income taxes for each period presented consisted of the following (in millions of dollars):



	Quarter Ended				Nine Months Ended
	September 30,				September 30,
	2017		2016		2017		2016
Domestic	$	15.7	$	9.1	$	35.8	$	39.5
Foreign	0.4		0.3		1.0		0.7
Total	$	16.1	$	9.4	$	36.8	$	40.2

The income tax provision for the quarters ended September 30, 2017 and September 30, 2016 was $16.1 million and $9.4 million, respectively, reflecting an effective tax rate of 44.7% and 38.7%, respectively. The difference between the effective tax rate and the projected blended statutory tax rate for the quarter ended September 30, 2017 was due to an increase of $2.5 million for the recognition of a deferred tax liability associated with earnings of our Canadian subsidiary that are no longer considered indefinitely reinvested, resulting in a 7.1% increase to the blended statutory tax rate. We determined our indefinite reinvestment assertion with respect to our Canadian foreign earnings was no longer applicable based primarily on expectations that productivity improvements will obviate the need to make sizable capital investments to increase capacity.

There was no material difference between the effective tax rate and the projected blended statutory tax rate for the quarter ended September 30, 2016.

The income tax provision for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 and September 30, 2016 was $36.8 million and $40.2 million, respectively, reflecting an effective tax rate of 37.8% and 37.5%, respectively. The difference between the effective tax rate and the projected blended statutory tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2017 was due to: (i) a decrease of $1.7 million for the recognition of excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation, resulting in a 1.7% decrease to the blended statutory tax rate; (ii) a decrease of $0.5 million to the valuation allowance for certain state net operating losses, resulting in a 0.6% decrease to the blended statutory tax rate; (iii) a decrease of $0.2 million related to unrecognized tax benefits, including interest and penalties, resulting in a 0.2% decrease to the blended statutory tax rate; which was offset by (iv) an increase of $2.5 million for the recognition of a deferred tax liability associated with earnings of our Canadian subsidiary that are no longer indefinitely reinvested, resulting in a 2.6% increase to the blended statutory tax rate.

There was no material difference between the effective tax rate and the projected blended statutory tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2016.

Our gross unrecognized benefits relating to uncertain tax positions were $1.5 million and $1.8 million at September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively, of which, $0.4 million and $0.7 million would be recorded through our income tax provision and thus impact the effective tax rate at September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively, if the gross unrecognized tax benefits were to be recognized.

We do not expect our gross unrecognized tax benefits to significantly change within the next 12 months.