Taxes

For the nine months ended September 30, 2015 and 2014, we recognized a benefit from income taxes of $10 million and a provision for income taxes of $4 million, respectively. The following is a reconciliation of the statutory federal and state tax rates to our effective tax rate at September 30, 2015 and 2014.

Table 20.1 – Reconciliation of Statutory Tax Rate to Effective Tax Rate



	September 30, 2015		September 30, 2014
Federal statutory rate	34.0	%	34.0	%
State statutory rate, net of Federal tax effect	7.2	%	7.2	%
Differences in taxable (loss) income from GAAP income	(36.5	)%	(10.0	)%
Change in valuation allowance	20.9	%	(1.0	)%
Dividends paid deduction	(45.8	)%	(25.4	)%
Effective Tax Rate	(20.2	)%	4.8	%

The negative effective tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2015, resulted from a benefit for income taxes being recorded against GAAP losses generated at our taxable REIT subsidiaries, while the consolidated income statement reported GAAP income. On a consolidated basis, GAAP income generated at the REIT, for which no material tax provision was recorded due to the dividends paid deduction, exceeded the losses at the taxable REIT subsidiaries.

We assessed our tax positions for all open tax years (Federal - years 2012 to 2015, State - years 2011- 2015) and, at September 30, 2015 and December 31, 2014, concluded that we had no uncertain tax positions that resulted in material unrecognized tax benefits.