Note 7 - Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2014

7.	Income Taxes

The Company and its subsidiaries file U.S. federal and various U.S. state income tax returns. Current income tax expense or benefit represents federal and state taxes based on tax paid or expected to be payable or receivable for the periods shown in the condensed consolidated statement of operations. The income tax benefit in the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements consists of the following (amounts in thousands):

	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2014		2013
Current tax benefit	$	-	$	(2,661	)
Deferred tax benefit		-		(139	)
Total tax benefit	$	-	$	(2,800	)

The Company is not expecting a current tax liability for the year due to sufficient net operating losses that will offset projected taxable income. Therefore, no tax expense has been recorded for the three months ended March 31, 2014.

The Company’s deferred tax expense or benefit reflects the change in deferred tax assets or liabilities. The Company performed an analysis to determine whether it is more likely than not the deferred tax asset is expected to be realized in future years. Based upon this analysis, a valuation allowance has been recorded on our net deferred tax assets for the three months ended March 31, 2014. The Company also recorded a valuation allowance in the fourth quarter of 2013. Therefore, there has been no change in net deferred taxes for the three months ended March 31, 2014.

The deferred tax benefit in the three months ended March 31, 2013 reflects, among other temporary timing differences, the change in deferred tax assets or liabilities related to lower tax depreciation than book depreciation offset by the impact of the amortization of goodwill for tax purposes

On September 13, 2013, the U.S. Treasury Department and the I.R.S. issued the final regulations that address costs incurred in acquiring, producing, or improving tangible property (the “tangible property regulations”). The tangible property regulations are generally effective for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2014, and may be adopted in earlier years. The Company intends to adopt the tax treatment of expenditures to improve tangible property and the capitalization of inherently facilitative costs to acquire tangible property for tax years on or after January 1, 2014. The tangible property regulations may require the Company to make additional tax accounting method changes for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2014; however, management does not anticipate the impact of these changes to be material to the Company’s consolidated financial position, its results of operations, or both.

The income tax expense or benefit differs from the amounts using the statutory federal income tax rate of 35% for the following reasons (amounts in thousands, except for percentages):

	Three Months Ended March, 31
	2014						2013
	Amount			%			Amount			%
Tax expense (benefit) at the U.S. federal statutory rate	$	168			35.0	%	$	(2,526	)		35.0	%
State franchise and income tax based on income, net of refunds and federal benefits		5			1.0			(115	)		1.6
Taxes on subsidiaries’ and joint ventures’ earnings allocated to noncontrolling ownership interests		(165	)		(34.4	)		(59	)		0.8
Valuation allowance		(55	)		(11.5	)		-			-
Non-taxable interest income		-			-			(80	)		1.1
Other permanent differences		47			9.9			(20	)		0.3
Income tax benefit	$	-			-	%	$	(2,800	)		38.8	%

As a result of the Company’s analysis, management has determined that the Company does not have any material uncertain tax positions.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for income taxes. Disclosures may include net deferred tax liability or asset recognized in an enterprise's statement of financial position, net change during the year in the total valuation allowance, approximate tax effect of each type of temporary difference and carryforward that gives rise to a significant portion of deferred tax liabilities and deferred tax assets, utilization of a tax carryback, and tax uncertainties information.

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