Income Taxes

Income tax expense was as follows:



	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
	2015			2014			2015			2014
Current income tax expense	$	16,960		$	19,665		$	49,048		$	49,836
Deferred income tax expense (benefit)	(4,830		)	(2,784		)	(12,234		)	(7,318		)
Income tax expense, as reported	$	12,130		$	16,881		$	36,814		$	42,518

Effective tax rate	13.8		%	17.9		%	14.3		%	17.2		%

Net deferred tax liabilities totaled $40.1 million at September 30, 2015 and $56.6 million at December 31, 2014. No valuation allowance for deferred tax assets was recorded at September 30, 2015 as management believes it is more likely than not that all of the deferred tax assets will be realized because they were supported by recoverable taxes paid in prior years. There were no unrecognized tax benefits during any of the reported periods. Interest and/or penalties related to income taxes are reported as a component of income tax expense. Such amounts were not significant during the reported periods.

We file income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction. We are no longer subject to U.S. federal income tax examinations by tax authorities for years before 2012.