Note 9 - Income Taxes

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

As of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, our current income tax liability was $32.6 million and $39.1 million, respectively, and is included as a component of other liabilities in our condensed consolidated balance sheets. As of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019 our deferred tax liability was $126.9 million and $71.1 million, respectively, and is included in other liabilities in our condensed consolidated balance sheets.

Certain entities within our consolidated group have generated deferred tax assets relating primarily to state and local NOL carryforwards, which, if unutilized, will expire during various future tax periods. We are required to establish a valuation allowance against our deferred tax assets when it is more likely than not that all or some portion of our deferred tax assets will not be realized. At each balance sheet date, we assess our need for a valuation allowance and this assessment is based on all available evidence, both positive and negative. This requires management to exercise judgment and make assumptions regarding whether our deferred tax assets will be realized in future periods. We have determined that certain entities within Radian Group may continue to generate taxable losses on a separate company basis in the near term and may not be able to fully utilize certain of their state and local NOLs on their state and local tax returns. Therefore, with respect to deferred tax assets relating to these state and local NOLs and other state timing adjustments, we retained a valuation allowance of $68.5 million at June 30, 2020.

As a mortgage guaranty insurer, we are eligible for a tax deduction, subject to certain limitations, under Internal Revenue Code Section 832(e) for amounts required by state law or regulation to be set aside in statutory contingency reserves. The deduction is allowed only to the extent that, in conjunction with quarterly federal tax payment due dates, we purchase non-interest bearing U.S. Mortgage Guaranty Tax and Loss Bonds issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in an amount equal to the tax benefit derived from deducting any portion of our statutory contingency reserves. As of June 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, we held $191.9 million and $134.8 million of these bonds, respectively, which are included as prepaid federal income taxes within other assets in our condensed consolidated balance sheets. The corresponding deduction of our statutory contingency reserves resulted in the recognition of a deferred tax liability, which is included in other liabilities in our condensed consolidated balance sheets.

In late July 2020, the IRS notified us that it had completed its examination of our 2015 and 2017 tax years. This examination resulted in no adjustments to the tax returns filed for those years.

For additional information on our income taxes, including our accounting policies, see Notes 2 and 10 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in our 2019 Form 10-K.