NOTE 12 – INCOME TAXES

At September 30, 2019, the Company had a deferred tax asset recorded in the amount of $1,600. At December 31, 2018, the Company had a deferred tax asset recorded of approximately $1,600. At September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, the Company had no unrecognized tax benefits recorded. The Company is subject to U.S. federal income tax and is no longer subject to federal examination for years prior to 2015.

Our deferred tax assets are composed of U.S. net operating losses (“NOLs”), and other temporary book to tax differences. When determining the amount of deferred tax assets that are more-likely-than-not to be realized, and therefore recorded as a benefit, the Company conducts a regular assessment of all available information. This information includes, but is not limited to, taxable income in prior periods, projected future income and projected future reversals of deferred tax items. Based on these criteria, the Company determined as of September 30, 2019 that no valuation allowance was required against the net deferred tax asset.

In 2012 the Company completed a recapitalization program pursuant to which the Holding Company sold $22,500 in common stock, which improved the capital levels of CFBank and provided working capital for the Holding Company. The result of the change in stock ownership associated with the stock offering, however, was that the Company incurred an ownership change within the guidelines of Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. At September 30, 2019, the Company had net operating loss carryforwards of $22,742, which expire at various dates from 2024 to 2033. As a result of the ownership change, the Company's ability to utilize carryforwards that arose before the 2012 stock offering closed is limited to $163 per year. Due to this limitation, management determined it is more likely than not that $20,520 of net operating loss carryforwards will expire unutilized. As required by accounting standards, the Company reduced the carrying value of deferred tax assets, and the corresponding valuation allowance, by the $6,977 tax effect of this lost realizability.

Federal income tax laws provided additional deductions, totaling $2,250, for thrift bad debt reserves established before 1988. Accounting standards do not require a deferred tax liability to be recorded on this amount, which otherwise would have totaled $473 at year-end 2018. However, if CFBank were wholly or partially liquidated or otherwise ceases to be a bank, or if tax laws were to change, this amount would have to be recaptured and a tax liability recorded. Additionally, any distributions in excess of CFBank’s current or accumulated earnings and profits would reduce amounts allocated to its bad debt reserve and create a tax liability for CFBank.

The Company records income tax expense based on the federal statutory rate adjusted for the effect of low income housing credits, bank owned life insurance and other miscellaneous items. The effective tax rate for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019 was approximately 20.5% and 20.3%, respectively, and 18.4% and 19.1%, respectively, for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018, which management believes is a reasonable estimate for the effective tax rate.

The following table summarizes the major components creating differences between income taxes at the federal statutory tax rate and the effective tax rate recorded in the consolidated statements of income for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018:


	For the three months ended September 30,		For the nine months ended September 30,
	2019	2018	2019	2018
	(unaudited)		(unaudited)
Statutory tax rate	21.0%	21.0%	21.0%	21.0%
Increase (decrease) resulting from:
Restricted stock	(0.1%)	(1.6%)	(0.1%)	(0.9%)
Tax exempt income on bank owned life insurance	(0.2%)	(0.6%)	(0.3%)	(0.6)%
Low income housing credits	(0.5%)	(0.6%)	(0.5%)	(0.6%)
Other, net	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%
Effective tax rate	20.5%	18.4%	20.3%	19.1%