Note 10 - Federal Income Taxes
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was enacted on December 22, 2017. Among other things, the new law (i) establishes a new, flat corporate federal statutory income tax rate of 21%, (ii) eliminates the corporate alternative minimum tax and allows the use of any such carryforwards to offset regular tax liability for any taxable year, (iii) limits the deduction for net interest expense incurred by U.S. corporations, (iv) allows businesses to immediately expense, for tax purposes, the cost of new investments in certain qualified depreciable assets, (v) eliminates or reduces certain deductions related to meals and entertainment expenses, (vi) modifies the limitation on excessive employee remuneration to eliminate the exception for performance-based compensation and clarifies the definition of a covered employee and (vii) limits the deductibility of deposit insurance premiums. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act also significantly changes U.S. tax law related to foreign operations, however, such changes do not currently impact us.
As stated above, as a result of the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on December 22, 2017, we remeasured our deferred tax assets and liabilities based upon the newly enacted U.S. statutory federal income tax rate of 21%, which is the tax rate at which these assets and liabilities are expected to reverse in the future. We recognized a net tax benefit related to the remeasurement of our deferred tax assets and liabilities totaling $8 thousand.
The components of income tax expense (benefit) for the years ended December 31 are as follows:
| (In Thousands) | ||||||||||||
| 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | ||||||||||
|
Current: |
||||||||||||
|
Federal |
$ | 5,162 | $ | 4,601 | $ | 3,941 | ||||||
|
Deferred: |
||||||||||||
|
Federal |
29 | 55 | (122 | ) | ||||||||
|
Federal - impact of enacted changes in tax law |
(8 | ) | — | — | ||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
| $ | 5,183 | $ | 4,656 | $ | 3,819 | |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
The following is a reconciliation of the statutory federal income tax rate to the effective tax rate:
| (In Thousands) | ||||||||||||
| 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | ||||||||||
|
Income tax at statutory rates |
$ | 6,045 | $ | 5,521 | $ | 4,792 | ||||||
|
Decrease resulting from: |
||||||||||||
|
Tax exempt interest |
(413 | ) | (468 | ) | (554 | ) | ||||||
|
Adjustment of deferred taxes for enacted changes in tax law |
(8 | ) | — | — | ||||||||
|
Section 831 deduction |
(318 | ) | (351 | ) | (351 | ) | ||||||
|
Change in other |
(123 | ) | (46 | ) | (68 | ) | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
| $ | 5,183 | $ | 4,656 | $ | 3,819 | |||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
Deferred tax assets and liabilities at December 31 are comprised of the following:
| (In Thousands) | ||||||||
| 2017 | 2016 | |||||||
|
Deferred Tax Assets: |
||||||||
|
Allowance for loan losses |
$ | 1,464 | $ | 2,326 | ||||
|
Other |
399 | 553 | ||||||
|
Net unrealized gain on available- for-sale securities |
581 | 1,016 | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
Total deferred tax assets |
2,444 | 3,895 | ||||||
|
Deferred Tax Liabilities: |
||||||||
|
Accreted discounts on bonds |
55 | 83 | ||||||
|
FHLB stock dividends |
462 | 744 | ||||||
|
Mortgage servicing rights |
490 | 752 | ||||||
|
Other |
1,185 | 1,745 | ||||||
|
Net unrealized gain on available- for-sale securities |
— | — | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
Total deferred tax liabilities |
2,192 | 3,324 | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
Net Deferred Tax Asset |
$ | 252 | $ | 571 | ||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||