Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

INCOME TAXES

INCOME TAXES

The following table sets out the tax expense and the effective tax rate for our income from continuing operations (in thousands):

	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2012			2011			2012			2011
Provision for income taxes:
Income from continuing operations before income taxes	$	10,003		$	10,415		$	24,126		$	52,845
Provision for income taxes	4,268			3,244			8,824			13,396
Effective tax rate	42.7		%	31.1		%	36.6		%	25.3		%

Our effective tax rate increased from the three months and nine months ended 2012 as compared to 2011 because 2012 projected earnings are being taxed in higher tax rate jurisdictions.

We repatriated $30.0 million from Japan during the second quarter of 2012 for which a deferred tax liability of $2.1 million had been recorded in 2010. The deferred tax liability was reclassified into current taxes payable in the second quarter of 2012. Other than this repatriation, undistributed earnings of foreign subsidiaries are considered to be permanently reinvested and accordingly, no provision for U.S. federal and state income taxes or foreign withholding taxes has been made.

Our policy is to classify accrued penalties and interest related to unrecognized tax benefits in our income tax provision. For the three months and nine months ended September 30, 2012 and 2011, the amount of interest and penalties accrued related to our unrecognized tax benefits was not significant.