Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Jul. 03, 2011

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

7.             Income Taxes

For the first nine months of fiscal 2011, our effective tax rate was 33.4% compared to 37.9% for the same period last year. The lower effective tax rate was primarily the result of the extension of the research and experimentation credits (“R&E credits”) and the continued expansion of our foreign operations.  In the first quarter of fiscal 2011, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 was signed into law.  The Act included a retroactive extension of R&E credits for amounts incurred from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2011.  As a result of this extension, a $1.2 million benefit from R&E credits for the last nine months of fiscal 2010 was included in the first quarter of fiscal 2011 tax expense.  We completed R&E credit studies for fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009 during the second quarter of fiscal 2011.  The results of these studies did not have a material impact on the benefit previously recognized for the R&E credits.