INCOME TAXES

Income taxes have been provided at an overall effective rate of 9.9% and 33.4% for the three month periods ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The overall effective tax rate includes the discrete items mentioned in the following paragraphs. Our effective tax rate will vary based on a variety of factors, including overall profitability, the geographical mix of income before taxes and related statutory tax rate in each jurisdiction, and discrete events, such as settlements of audits.

In the first three months of fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2013, we recorded a discrete tax benefit of $0.2 million and $0.1 million, respectively for the release of income tax reserves due to the expiration of statutes of limitation from various U.S. and foreign tax jurisdictions. For the three month periods ended December 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, these discrete tax benefits reduced our effective tax rate by 28.1 and 7.8 percentage points, respectively.

8. INCOME TAXES (CONTINUED)

During the first three months of both fiscal 2014 and fiscal 2013, the income tax provision before discrete tax benefits was higher than the federal statutory rate primarily due to reserves for unrecognized tax benefits and state income taxes, in excess of domestic tax benefits.

A reconciliation of the beginning and ending amount of unrecognized tax benefits is (in thousands):



Unrecognized tax benefits as of September 30, 2013	$	3,332
Decreases related to:
Expiration of statute of limitations	(160		)
Unrecognized tax benefits as of December 31, 2013	$	3,172

The total amount of unrecognized tax benefits that, if recognized, would affect our effective tax rate is $3.2 million. We expect an insignificant change in the total amounts of unrecognized tax benefits over the next 12 months.

We recognize interest and penalties related to income tax matters in income tax expense. During both the three month periods ended December 31, 2013 and 2012, there were insignificant amounts of interest and penalties related to income tax matters in income tax expense. Accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits were $0.5 million at December 31, 2013 and $0.6 million at September 30, 2013. Our long-term income taxes payable on our condensed consolidated balance sheets includes these accrued interest and penalties in addition to the unrecognized tax benefits in the table above.

At December 31, 2013, we had approximately $25.3 million of accumulated undistributed foreign earnings, for which we have not accrued additional U.S. tax. Our policy is to reinvest earnings of our foreign subsidiaries indefinitely to fund current operations and provide for future international expansion opportunities, and only repatriate earnings to the extent that U.S. taxes have already been recorded. Although we have no current need to do so, if we change our assertion that we do not intend to repatriate additional undistributed foreign earnings for cash requirements in the United States, we would have to accrue applicable taxes. The amount of any taxes and the application of any tax credits would be determined based on the income tax laws at the time of such repatriation. Under current tax laws, we estimate the unrecognized deferred tax liability to be in the range of $1.5 million to $2.5 million, which could have a material impact on our current consolidated balance sheet, results of operations and cash flows.

We operate in multiple tax jurisdictions both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S. Accordingly, we must determine the appropriate allocation of income to each of these jurisdictions. This determination requires us to make several estimates and assumptions. Tax audits associated with the allocation of this income, and other complex issues, may require an extended period of time to resolve and may result in adjustments to our income tax balances in those years that are material to our consolidated balance sheet and results of operations. We are no longer subject to income tax examination for tax years prior to fiscal 2009, except for certain refund claims applicable to fiscal 2009, in the case of U.S. federal tax authorities and prior to fiscal 2008 for non-U.S. income tax authorities. For state taxing authorities, most notably in Minnesota, California and Texas, we are no longer subject to income tax examination for tax years generally before fiscal 2009.