Income Taxes

The following table presents the Company’s provision for income taxes and effective income tax rate for the periods below:



	Three months ended May 31,						Nine months ended May 31,
	2017			2016			2017			2016
Provision for income taxes	$	9,663		$	8,122		$	21,601		$	20,618
Effective income tax rate	34.0		%	34.6		%	33.5		%	34.8		%

The effective income tax rate during the third quarter of fiscal year 2017 was comparable to the same period in the prior fiscal year. The lower effective income tax rate for the first nine months of fiscal year 2017 was due primarily to the recognition of excess tax benefits related to stock option exercises due to the early adoption of ASU No. 2016-09, “Compensation-Stock Compensation: Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting,” in the first quarter of 2017. Excess tax benefits recognized as a component of the provision for income taxes in the condensed consolidated statements of income were negligible in the first quarter of fiscal year 2017 and $0.7 million and $0.1 million in the second and third quarters of fiscal year 2017, respectively. Please refer to the "Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements" section of note 1 - Summary of Significant Accounting Policies for details regarding the adoption of this standard. The decrease in tax rate for the first nine months of fiscal year 2017 was partially offset by the favorable impact of the retroactive reinstatement of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit in the second quarter of fiscal year 2016.