Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

9.  Income Taxes

A reconciliation of the liability for unrecognized tax benefits is as follows:

	Noncurrent tax liabilities
	(in thousands)
Balance at January 1, 2011	$	36,846
Additions based on current year positions	3,920
Additions based on prior year positions	1,336
Decreases due to settlements and/or reduction in liabilities	(9,569		)
Currency translation adjustments	(778		)
Balance at September 30, 2011	$	31,755

The decrease in the Company’s liability for unrecognized tax benefits during the nine months ended September 30, 2011 was primarily due to the reversal of previously recorded unrecognized tax benefit reserves in the second quarter of 2011 for years that either the statue of limitations has lapsed in 2011 or that have been favorably settled.

The Company’s effective tax rate (income taxes as a percentage of income from operations before income taxes) decreased to 35.1% and 36.7% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011, respectively, as compared to 41.6% and 42.3% for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010, respectively.  The reason is primarily due to the reversal of previously recorded unrecognized tax benefit reserves in the second quarter of 2011 for years that either the statue of limitations has lapsed in 2011 or that have been favorably settled coupled with favorable state income tax benefits received from the impact of certain subsidiary restructurings completed in the third quarter of 2011. Lastly, the Company also had an impairment charge in the second quarter of 2010 on the Company’s Columbus property which had an unfavorable impact to the Company’s effective rate by lowering income from operations before income taxes.