Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Income Taxes

v3.8.0.1
Income Taxes
9 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes
Our provision for income taxes as a percentage of pre-tax earnings (“effective tax rate”) is based on a current estimate of the annual effective income tax rate, adjusted to reflect the impact of discrete items. In accordance with ASC 740, jurisdictions forecasting losses that are not benefited due to valuation allowances are not included in our forecasted effective tax rate.
During the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017, a tax benefit of $84 and $937, respectively, resulted in an effective tax rate of 2.2% and 6.1%, respectively. Differences in the tax provision and the statutory rate are primarily due to changes in the valuation allowance. The tax benefit reported in the current year is largely due to the true up of an estimate resulting from the finalization of a transfer pricing study.
During the three and nine months ended December 31, 2016, a tax expense of $300 and $159, respectively, resulted in an effective tax rate of (13.1)% and (0.9)%, respectively. Differences in the tax provision and statutory rate are primarily due to changes in the valuation allowance.
On December 22, 2017, the U.S. government enacted comprehensive tax legislation commonly referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the Tax Act). The Tax Act significantly revises the future ongoing U.S. corporate income tax by, among other things, lowering U. S. corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% and implementing a territorial tax system. As the Company has a March 31 fiscal year-end, the lower corporate income tax rate will be phased in, resulting in a U.S. statutory federal rate of approximately 31.5% for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018, and 21 % for subsequent fiscal years.

Since the Company has a valuation allowance recorded against all of its U.S. federal deferred tax assets the change in U.S. federal statutory tax rate and the related remeasurement of U.S. federal deferred tax assets and liabilities had no impact on the Company’s third quarter income tax provision.

The new U.S. tax law also requires corporations to include in income a deemed repatriation of foreign earnings and profits previously unremitted to the U.S. and pay a repatriation tax for the move to a territorial system, whether or not the foreign subsidiaries repatriate cash or property to the U.S. The payment of the repatriation tax can be spread over eight years with the first installment due April 15, 2018. Since the Company’s foreign corporate subsidiaries have a net deficit in earnings and profits no transition tax accrual is required or expected.

As a result of the valuation allowance against U.S. deferred tax assets and the Company’s U.S. federal and state NOL carryovers, the Company does not anticipate the changes in U.S. tax law to impact its annual effective tax rate in future periods for which the valuation allowance remains.