Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Income Taxes [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Note 11 – Income Taxes
Income tax expense consists of the following:
	Nine Months Ended
	September 30,
(in thousands)		2019		2018
Federal – current	$	907	$	223
Foreign – current		5,607		25,894
State – current		1,096		7,673
Deferred		206		11,863
	$	7,816	$	45,653

The U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (U.S. Tax Reform), which was signed into law on December 22, 2017, significantly changed U.S. tax law by, among other things, lowering corporate income tax rates, implementing a territorial tax system, adding a global intangible taxation regime and imposing a transition (Transition Tax) tax on deemed repatriated cumulative earnings of foreign subsidiaries.

To minimize tax base erosion with a territorial tax system, the U.S. Tax Reform enacted a new global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI) provision that requires the Company to include in its U.S. income tax return foreign subsidiary earnings in excess of an allowable return on the foreign subsidiaries tangible assets. The taxable earnings can be offset by a limited deemed paid foreign tax credit with no carrybacks or carryforwards available. The Company is subject to the GILTI provisions. The Company elected to account for the GILTI as a period cost and include the effect in the period in which it is incurred and not include it as a factor in the determination of deferred taxes.

As of December 31, 2018, the Company had approximately $330 million in cumulative undistributed foreign earnings of its foreign subsidiaries. These earnings would not be subject to U.S. income tax, if distributed to the Company. During 2018, the Company changed its assertion on its foreign subsidiaries earnings that are permanently reinvested. A certain amount of earnings from specific foreign subsidiaries are permanently reinvested, and certain foreign earnings from other specific foreign subsidiaries are considered to be non-permanently reinvested and are available for immediate distribution to the Company. Income taxes were accrued on the non-permanently reinvested foreign earnings including the 2017 Transition Tax, the U.S. tax on GILTI, and any applicable local withholding taxes. As a result of this change in assertion for undistributed earnings prior to December 31, 2017, the Company recorded $30.7 million of deferred tax expense for foreign withholding tax from Asia and $9.4 million of deferred U.S. state income tax expense in the first three months of 2018.

Excluding the impact of these items, income tax expense differs from the amount computed by applying the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate to income before income taxes primarily due to the mix of taxable income by taxing jurisdiction, the impact of tax incentives and tax holidays in foreign locations, state income taxes (net of federal benefit) and the U.S. tax under GILTI.

The Company has been granted certain tax incentives, including tax holidays, for its subsidiaries in Malaysia and Thailand that will expire at various dates, unless extended or otherwise renegotiated, through 2021 in Malaysia and 2028 in Thailand, and are subject to certain conditions with which the Company expects to comply. The net impact of these tax incentives was to lower income tax expense for the ninemonths ended September 30, 2019 and 2018 by approximately $4.0 million (approximately $0.10 per diluted share) and $8.2 million (approximately $0.17 per diluted share), respectively, as follows:

	Nine Months Ended
	September 30,
(in thousands)		2019		2018
China	$	—	$	1,449
Malaysia		2,294		3,219
Thailand		1,705		3,579
	$	3,999	$	8,247

The Company’s Chinese subsidiary had a tax incentive that expired in 2018 and has submitted an application for a new tax incentive in China during the third quarter of 2019.

As of September 30, 2019, the total amount of the reserve for uncertain tax benefits including interest and penalties was $0.4 million. The reserve is classified as a current or long-term liability in the condensed consolidated balance sheets based on the Company’s expectation of when the items will be settled. The Company records interest expense and penalties accrued in relation to uncertain income tax benefits as a component of current income tax expense. The amount of accrued potential interest and penalties on unrecognized tax benefits included in the reserve as of September 30, 2019 was $0.1 million.

The Company and its subsidiaries in Brazil, China, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Romania, Singapore, Thailand and the United States remain open to examination by the various local taxing authorities, in total or in part, for fiscal years 2012 to 2018. Currently, the Company does not have any ongoing income tax examinations by any jurisdiction. During the course of such income tax examinations, disputes may occur as to matters of fact or law. Also, in most tax jurisdictions, the passage of time without examination will result in the expiration of applicable statutes of limitations thereby precluding examination of the tax period(s) for which such statute of limitation has expired. The Company believes that it has adequately provided for its tax liabilities.