INCOME TAXES:

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2021

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

INCOME TAXES

In accordance with interim reporting requirements, IDACORP and Idaho Power use an estimated annual effective tax rate for computing their provisions for income taxes. An estimate of annual income tax expense (or benefit) is made each interim period using estimates for annual pre-tax income, income tax adjustments, and tax credits. The estimated annual effective tax rates do not include discrete events such as tax law changes, examination settlements, accounting method changes, or adjustments to tax expense or benefits attributable to prior years. Discrete events are recorded in the interim period in which they occur or become known. The estimated annual effective tax rate is applied to year-to-date pre-tax income to determine income tax expense (or benefit) for the interim period consistent with the annual estimate. In subsequent interim periods, income tax expense (or benefit) for the period is computed as the difference between the year-to-date amount reported for the previous interim period and the current period's year-to-date amount.

Income Tax Expense

The following table provides a summary of income tax expense for the six months ended June 30, 2021 and 2020 (in thousands): 

	IDACORP						Idaho Power
	2021			2020			2021			2020
Income tax at statutory rates (federal and state)	$	33,722		$	27,980		$	33,586		$	27,613
Excess deferred income tax reversal	(3,213)			(2,962)			(3,213)			(2,962)
Other(1)	(14,353)			(14,197)			(13,082)			(13,073)
Income tax expense	$	16,156		$	10,821		$	17,291		$	11,578
Effective tax rate	12.3		%	9.9		%	13.3		%	10.8		%

(1) "Other" is primarily comprised of the net tax effect of Idaho Power's regulatory flow-through tax adjustments.

The increase in income tax expense for the six months ended June 30, 2021, compared with the same period in 2020, was primarily due to higher pre-tax earnings. On a net basis, Idaho Power’s estimate of its annual 2021 regulatory flow-through tax adjustments is comparable to 2020.