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Note 16 - Income Taxes
 3 Months Ended
Jan. 31, 2021
Notes to Financial Statements  
Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]

16.

Income Taxes 

 

The total income tax expense of $0.6 million recognized for the three months ended January 31, 2021 was primarily related to state tax expense from income generated in states where we do not have net operating loss carryforwards to offset the current year income. The total income tax expense of $1.7 million recognized for the three months ended January 31, 2020 was primarily related to state tax expense from the impact of the cancellation of debt income recorded for tax purposes but not for GAAP purposes, creating a permanent difference.

 

Our federal net operating losses of $1.4 billion expire between 2028 and 2038, and $22.8 million have an indefinite carryforward period. Of our $2.4 billion of state NOLs, $232.6 million expire between 2021 through 2025; $1.3 billion expire between 2026 through 2030; $587.9 million expire between 2031 through 2035; $239.2 million expire between 2036 through 2040; and $48.8 million have an indefinite carryforward period.

 

On December 27, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) was enacted and signed into U.S. law to provide additional economic relief in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The CAA did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial conditions or results of operations as of and for the three months ended January 31, 2021. We will continue to monitor additional guidance issued by the U.S. Treasury Department, the Internal Revenue Service and various state agencies.

 

Deferred federal and state income tax assets ("DTAs") primarily represent the deferred tax benefits arising from NOL carryforwards and temporary differences between book and tax income which will be recognized in future years as an offset against future taxable income. If the combination of future years’ income (or loss) and the reversal of the timing differences results in a loss, such losses can be carried forward to future years. In accordance with ASC 740, we evaluate our DTAs quarterly to determine if valuation allowances are required. ASC 740 requires that companies assess whether valuation allowances should be established based on the consideration of all available evidence using a “more likely than not” standard.

 

As of January 31, 2021, we considered all available positive and negative evidence to determine whether, based on the weight of that evidence, our valuation allowance for our DTAs was appropriate in accordance with ASC 740. Listed below, in order of the weighting of each factor, is the available positive and negative evidence that we considered in determining that it is more likely than not that all of our DTAs will not be realized. In analyzing these factors, overall the negative evidence, both objective and subjective, outweighed the positive evidence. Based on this analysis, we determined that the current valuation allowance for deferred taxes of $571.5 million as of January 31, 2021, which fully reserves for our DTAs, is appropriate.

 

 

1.

As of January 31, 2021, on a tax basis, the Company had pre-tax income when adjusted for permanent differences on a three-year cumulative basis. On a U.S. GAAP basis, the Company has generated only $23.8 million of cumulative pre-tax income in the three years ended October 31, 2020. That cumulative profit was generated over those three years as follows: $8.1 million in fiscal 2018, $39.7 million loss in fiscal 2019 and $55.4 million of income in fiscal 2020. As noted, we had a significant loss in fiscal 2019 and generated a low level of profit in fiscal 2018. While the fiscal 2020 profit, and the results for the first quarter of fiscal 2021, were positives for the Company, those recent periods benefited greatly from the extremely strong housing market since June of 2020. This strong market, as a result of low interest rates and lack of available supply from resale, resulted in contract pace per average active selling community of 17.8 and 16.4 for the third and fourth quarters of fiscal 2020, respectively, and 16.0 for the first quarter of fiscal 2021, all of which are higher than any quarterly sales per community ever recorded by the Company. This increase in sales pace resulted in an 85.2% increase in dollar value of our backlog from January 31, 2020 to January 31, 2021. The Company believes that it is premature to conclude that this pace is sustainable. We remain uncertain regarding the full long-term magnitude or duration of the business and economic impacts from the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Further, it remains unknown whether recent, current or anticipated demand will continue once the current COVID-19 pandemic subsides. These uncertainties bring into doubt the Company’s ability to generate substantive positive income prospectively. (Negative Objective Evidence)

 

2.

Over the last several years, we have completed a number of debt refinancing/restructuring transactions which, by extending our debt maturities, will enable us to allocate cash to invest in new communities and grow our community count to get back to sustained profitability. (Positive Objective Evidence) 

 

3.

We incurred pre-tax losses during the housing market decline and the slower than expected housing market recovery. Given our current highly leveraged balance sheet, a downturn in the housing market, perhaps as a result of a prolonged pandemic, would be significantly more damaging to the Company than to other better capitalized homebuilders and would make it very difficult for the Company to avoid future losses, given our high interest burden. (Negative Objective Evidence)

 

4.

We exited several geographic markets over the last few years that have historically had losses. By exiting these underperforming markets, the Company has been able to redeploy capital to better performing markets, which over time should improve our profitability. (Positive Subjective Evidence) 

 

5.

The historical cyclicality of the U.S. housing market, a more restrictive mortgage lending environment compared to before the housing downturn of 2007-2009, the uncertainty of the overall U.S. economy and government policies and consumer confidence, and impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic, all or any of which could continue to hamper a sustained, stronger recovery of the housing market. (Negative Subjective Evidence)