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Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2017
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes
ProAssurance estimates its annual effective tax rate at the end of each quarterly reporting period and uses this estimated rate to record the provision for income taxes in the interim financial statements. The provision for income taxes is different from that which would be obtained by applying the statutory Federal income tax rate to income before taxes primarily because a portion of ProAssurance’s investment income is tax-exempt, and because ProAssurance utilizes tax credit benefits transferred from tax credit partnership investments. Also, in 2017 no U.S. or U.K. tax expense was recognized relative to ProAssurance's pro rata portion of the operating profits of Syndicate 1729 as prior year operating losses were available to offset the profits. In 2016, no U.K. tax benefit was recognized relative to ProAssurance's pro rata portion of Syndicate 1729's operating losses as there was no income against which the losses could be offset.
ProAssurance had a receivable for Federal and U.K. income taxes of $3.3 million at March 31, 2017, carried as a part of Other assets and a liability of $5.1 million at December 31, 2016, carried as a part of Other liabilities. The liability for unrecognized tax benefits was $8.4 million at March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016.