Note 13.  Income Taxes



The provision (benefit) from income taxes consists of the following for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands):







The following is the domestic and foreign components of our income (loss) before income taxes for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands):







The following is a summary of the items that caused recorded income taxes to differ from income taxes computed using the statutory federal income tax rate for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015:







We recorded a tax expense (benefit) of $0.7 million, $(8.8) million and $(16.2) million for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. For the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, our effective tax rate was 34.1%,  33.0% and (137.5%). The primary differences between these effective tax rates were due to several offsetting items, including the effects of recording tax expense for the 2017 Tax Act of $3.9 million, not providing U.S. income taxes on the undistributed earnings of foreign subsidiaries because we intend to permanently reinvest such earnings outside the U.S. and a tax benefit for the reversal of our deferred tax liability due to the change in our foreign unremitted earnings assertion of $3.9 million. During the first quarter of 2017, we changed our assertion to state that undistributed foreign earnings are indefinitely or permanently reinvested as a result of cash proceeds received from the IPO during May 2017, a portion of which was used to pay off existing debt. The negative effective tax rate in 2015 was primarily due to a tax planning strategy and the effect of an adjustment of our deferred taxes liability on differences between book value and tax basis in our Canadian subsidiary. The tax planning strategy resulted in the Company receiving permission from a foreign tax authority to change the year end to conform to U.S. income tax reporting



The 2017 Tax Act was signed into law on December 22, 2017. The 2017 Tax Act significantly revises the U.S. corporate income tax by, among other things, lowering the statutory corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, eliminating certain deductions, imposing a mandatory one-time tax on accumulated earnings of foreign subsidiaries as of 2017, introducing new tax regimes, and changing how foreign earnings are subject to U.S. tax. We recorded a tax benefit of $0.5 million for the remeasurement of federal net deferred tax liabilities resulting from the permanent reduction in the U.S. statutory corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% and recorded a mandatory one-time tax on the accumulated earnings of our foreign subsidiaries of $4.4 million.  Our preliminary estimate of the 2017 Tax Act and the remeasurement of our deferred tax assets and liabilities is subject to the finalization of management’s analysis related to certain matters, such as developing interpretations of the provisions of the 2017 Tax Act, changes to certain estimates and the filing of our tax returns. U.S. Treasury regulations, administrative interpretations or court decisions interpreting the 2017 Tax Act may require further adjustments and changes in our estimates.  The final determination of the 2017 Tax Act and the remeasurement of our deferred assets and liabilities will be completed as additional information becomes available, but no later than one year from the enactment of the 2017 Tax Act in accordance with SAB 118.  Those adjustments may impact our provision for income taxes in the period in which the adjustments are made.



The tax effects of temporary differences that give rise to significant portions of deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities as of December 31, 2017 and 2016 are as follows (in thousands):







The above are included in the accompanying consolidated balance sheet as follows (in thousands):