Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

INCOME TAXES

Stratus’ accounting policy for and other information regarding its income taxes is further described in Notes 1 and 7 in the Stratus 2019 Form 10-K.

Stratus had deferred tax assets (net of deferred tax liabilities) totaling $9.8 million at March 31, 2020, and $12.3 million at December 31, 2019. Stratus’ future results of operations may be negatively impacted by an inability to realize a tax benefit for future tax losses or for items that will generate additional deferred tax assets.

The difference between Stratus' consolidated effective income tax rate for the first three months of 2020 and the U.S. Federal statutory income tax rate of 21 percent, was primarily attributable to the CARES Act, which allows Stratus to carryback losses to 2017 when the U.S. corporate tax rate was 35 percent among other impacts, resulting in a first-quarter 2020 tax benefit of $1.3 million, and the Texas state margin tax. The difference between Stratus' consolidated effective income tax rate for the first three months of 2019 and the U.S. Federal statutory income tax rate of 21 percent, was primarily attributable to the Texas state margin tax and permanent differences.