Astronics Corporation Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Annual report pursuant to Section 13 and 15(d)

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2017

INCOME TAXES

The Company recognizes deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of temporary differences between the financial reporting and tax basis of assets and liabilities. Deferred tax assets are reduced, if deemed necessary, by a valuation allowance for the amount of tax benefits which are not expected to be realized. Investment tax credits are recognized on the flow through method.

The provision (benefit) for income taxes consists of the following:



(In thousands)	2017			2016			2015
Current
U.S. Federal	$	8,436		$	21,667		$	24,809
State	2,054			2,899			2,382
Foreign	316			551			137
Deferred
U.S. Federal	(3,850		)	(2,871		)	703
State	(326		)	(1,140		)	(1,019		)
Foreign	(1,318		)	(745		)	64
	$	5,312		$	20,361		$	27,076

The effective tax rates differ from the statutory federal income tax rate as follows:



	2017		2016		2015
Statutory Federal Income Tax Rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
Permanent Items
Non-deductible Stock Compensation Expense	1.1	%	1.1	%	0.6	%
Domestic Production Activity Deduction	(4.7	)%	(3.3	)%	(2.9	)%
Other	0.5	%	0.2	%	0.2	%
Foreign Tax Benefits	(5.6	)%	(1.1	)%	(1.1	)%
State Income Tax, Net of Federal Income Tax Effect	4.5	%	1.8	%	0.9	%
Research and Development Tax Credits	(11.5	)%	(3.7	)%	(2.7	)%
Tax Expense on Deemed Repatriation of Foreign Earnings	5.6	%	—	%	—	%
Revaluation of Deferred Taxes for Federal Tax Rate Change	(3.5	)%	—	%	—	%
Other	(0.1	)%	(0.4	)%	(1.2	)%
Effective Tax Rate	21.3	%	29.6	%	28.8	%

Deferred income taxes reflect the net tax effects of temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities for financial reporting purposes and the amounts used for income tax purposes.

Significant components of the Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities as of December 31, are as follows:



(In thousands)	2017			2016
Deferred Tax Assets:
Asset Reserves	$	5,615		$	9,208
Deferred Compensation	6,091			8,378
Capital Lease Basis Difference	1,002			1,690
State Investment and Research and Development Tax Credit Carryforwards, Net of Federal Tax	1,379			665
Customer Advanced Payments and Deferred Revenue	1,007			3,750
State Net Operating Loss Carryforwards and Other	8,115			4,282
Total Gross Deferred Tax Assets	23,209			27,973
Valuation Allowance for Foreign Tax Credit, State Deferred Tax Assets and Tax Credit Carryforwards, Net of Federal Tax	(7,823		)	(3,816		)
Deferred Tax Assets	15,386			24,157
Deferred Tax Liabilities:
Depreciation	9,267			12,972
Goodwill and Intangible Assets	7,275			18,558
Other	1,149			1,280
Deferred Tax Liabilities	17,691			32,810
Net Deferred Tax Liabilities	$	(2,305	)	$	(8,653	)

The net deferred tax assets and liabilities presented in the Consolidated Balance Sheets are as follows at December 31:



(In thousands)	2017			2016
Other Assets — Long-term	$	2,816		$	2,644
Deferred Tax Liabilities — Long-term	(5,121		)	(11,297		)
Net Deferred Tax Liabilities	$	(2,305	)	$	(8,653	)

At December 31, 2017, state tax credit carryforwards amounted to approximately $1.8 million, of which $0.9 million will expire from 2017 through 2031 and $0.9 million will carryforward until utilized. At December 31, 2017, state net operating loss carryforwards which the Company expects to utilize amounted to approximately $13.6 million and expire at various dates between 2032 and 2037.

Due to the uncertainty as to the Company’s ability to generate sufficient taxable income in certain states in the future and utilize certain of the Company’s state operating loss carryforwards before they expire, the Company has recorded a valuation allowance accordingly. These state net operating loss carryforwards amount to approximately $79.9 million and expire at various dates from 2021 through 2037. The Company adopted ASU No. 2016-09, Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting during 2017 and beginning with 2017 the excess tax benefits associated with stock option exercises are no longer recorded directly to shareholders’ equity, but rather, are recorded in the provision for income taxes, when realized. A $0.5 million benefit was recorded in the provision for incomes taxes for the year ended December 31, 2017. Amounts recorded directly to shareholders’ equity amounted to approximately $0.8 million and $3.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2016, and 2015 respectively.

At December 31, 2017, estimated foreign tax credit carryforwards, which the Company expects not to utilize, amounted to approximately $0.3 million. Due to the uncertainty as to the Company’s ability to generate any general limitation foreign source income in the future and utilize these foreign tax credits, the Company has recorded a valuation allowance accordingly.

The Company has analyzed its filing positions in all of the federal and state jurisdictions where it is required to file income tax returns, as well as all open tax years in these jurisdictions. Should the Company need to accrue a liability for uncertain tax benefits, any interest associated with that liability would be recorded as interest expense. Penalties, if any, would be recorded as operating expenses. As of December 31, 2017, we no longer have any unrecognized tax benefits. Reserves for uncertain tax positions that had been recorded pursuant to ASC Topic 740-10 as of December 31, 2014 were reversed during the year-ended December 31, 2015. No additional reserves for uncertain income tax positions were deemed necessary for the years ended December 31, 2017 or 2016. A reconciliation of the total amounts of unrecognized tax benefits, excluding interest and penalties which are insignificant, is as follows:



(in thousands)	2017		2016		2015
Balance at Beginning of the Year	$	—	$	—	$	181
Decreases as a Result of Tax Positions Taken in Prior Years	—		—		(181		)
Increases as a Result of Tax Positions Taken in the Current Year	—		—		—
Balance at End of the Year	$	—	$	—	$	—

There are no penalties or interest liabilities accrued as of December 31, 2017 or 2016, nor are any material penalties or interest costs included in expense for each of the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015. The years under which we conducted our evaluation coincided with the tax years currently still subject to examination by major federal and state tax jurisdictions, those being 2014 through 2017 for federal purposes and 2013 through 2017 for state purposes.

Pretax income from the Company’s foreign subsidiaries amounted to $1.1 million, $1.6 million and $3.6 million for 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The balance of pretax earnings for each of those years were domestic.

On December 22, 2017, the President of the United States signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The legislation significantly changes U.S. tax law by, among other things, lowering corporate income tax rates, implementing a territorial tax system and imposing a repatriation tax on deemed repatriated earnings of foreign subsidiaries. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanently reduces the U.S. corporate income tax rate from a maximum of 35% to a flat 21% rate, effective January 1, 2018.

The Company uses the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes. Under this method, deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for the future tax consequences attributable to differences between the financial statement carrying amounts of existing assets and liabilities and their respective tax basis. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using enacted tax rates expected to apply to taxable income in the years in which those temporary differences are expected to reverse. As a result of the reduction in the U.S. corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the Company revalued its ending net deferred tax liabilities at December 31, 2017 and recognized a provisional $0.9 million tax benefit in the Company’s consolidated statement of income for the year ended December 31, 2017.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provided for a one-time deemed mandatory repatriation of post-1986 undistributed foreign subsidiary earnings and profits (“E&P”) through the year ended December 31, 2017. The Company had an estimated $10.3 million of undistributed foreign E&P subject to the deemed mandatory repatriation and recognized a provisional $1.4 million of income tax expense in the Company’s consolidated statement of income for the year ended December 31, 2017. After the utilization of existing tax credits, the Company expects to pay additional U.S. federal cash taxes of approximately $1.3 million on the deemed mandatory repatriation, payable over eight years. In addition, the Company expects to pay additional State cash taxes of approximately $0.1 million on the deemed mandatory repatriation. No additional provision for U.S. federal or foreign taxes has been made as the foreign subsidiaries’ undistributed earnings are considered to be permanently reinvested. It is not practicable to determine the amount of other taxes that would be payable if these amounts were repatriated to the U.S.

While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provides for a territorial tax system, beginning in 2018, it includes two new U.S. tax base erosion provisions, the global intangible low-taxed income (“GILTI”) provisions and the base-erosion and anti-abuse tax (“BEAT”) provisions.

The GILTI provisions require the Company to include in its U.S. income tax return foreign subsidiary earnings in excess of an allowable return on the foreign subsidiary’s tangible assets. The Company expects that it will be subject to incremental U.S. tax on GILTI income beginning in 2018, due to expense allocations required by the U.S. foreign tax credit rules. The Company has elected to account for GILTI tax in the period in which it is incurred, and therefore has not provided any deferred tax impacts of GILTI in its consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017.

The BEAT provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act eliminates the deduction of certain base-erosion payments made to related foreign corporations, and impose a minimum tax if greater than regular tax. The Company does not expect it will be subject to this tax and therefore has not included any tax impacts of BEAT in its consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017.

On December 22, 2017, the SEC staff issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 (“SAB 118”) to address the application of U.S. GAAP in situations when a registrant does not have the necessary information available, prepared, or analyzed (including computations) in reasonable detail to complete the accounting for certain income tax effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Company has recognized the provisional tax impacts related to deemed repatriated earnings and the revaluation of deferred tax assets and liabilities and included these amounts in its consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017. The ultimate impact may differ from these provisional amounts, possibly materially, due to, among other things, additional analysis, changes in interpretations and assumptions the Company has made, additional regulatory guidance that may be issued, and actions the Company may take as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The accounting is expected to be complete when the 2017 U.S. corporate income tax return is filed in 2018.