Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

15. Income Taxes

For the three months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, the Company recorded an income tax provision of $1.6 million and $1.4 million, respectively.

The income tax provisions for the three months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, consisted of (1) taxes on the income of the Company’s foreign subsidiaries, (2) foreign withholding taxes (3) tax expense associated with the establishment of a U.S. deferred tax liability for amortizable goodwill resulting from the acquisition of Enterasys Networks, Inc., the WLAN Business, the Campus Fabric Business the Data Center Business, and (4) state taxes in jurisdictions where the Company has no remaining state Net Operating Losses (“NOLs”). The income tax provisions for both fiscal years were calculated based on the actual results of operations for the three months ended September 30, 2019 and 2018, respectively and therefore may not reflect the annual effective tax rate.

In the three months ended September 30, 2018, the Company adopted ASU 2016-16, Intra-Entity Transfers of Assets Other Than Inventory, which requires an entity to recognize the income tax consequences of an intra-entity transfer of an asset at the time the transfer occurs.  Historically, GAAP has prohibited the recognition of current and deferred income taxes for an intra-entity asset transfer until the asset had been sold outside the consolidated group.  Effective as of July 1, 2018, the Company adopted ASU 2016-16 on a modified retrospective basis which requires an adjustment of the cumulative-effect of the adoption to retained earnings.  However, the adjustment was immaterial to the financial statements and no such adjustment was necessary.  As a result of adoption, the income tax consequences of future intra-entity transfer of assets will be recognized in earnings in each period rather than be deferred until the assets leave the consolidated group.  In the three months ended September 30, 2018, the Company recognized a deferred tax asset relating to a transfer of certain assets from the U.S. parent company to its wholly-owned Irish subsidiary of $3.7 million, which was fully offset by the establishment of a valuation allowance resulting in no impact to Company’s statement of operations.

The Company has provided a full valuation allowance against all its U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets as well as a portion of the deferred tax assets in Ireland. A valuation allowance is determined by assessing both negative and positive evidence to determine whether it is “more likely than not” that the deferred tax assets are recoverable; such assessment is required on a jurisdiction by jurisdiction basis.  The Company's inconsistent earnings in recent periods, including a cumulative loss over the last three years, coupled with its difficulty in forecasting future revenue trends as well as the cyclical nature of its business represent sufficient negative evidence to require a full valuation allowance against its U.S. federal and state net deferred tax assets as well as the deferred tax assets of a newly established wholly owned Irish subsidiary as well as a portion of the deferred tax assets in Ireland.  These valuation allowance will be evaluated periodically and can be reversed partially or in whole if business results and the economic environment have sufficiently improved to support realization of some or all of the Company's deferred tax assets.

On August 9, 2019, the Company completed its acquisition of Aerohive.  This acquisition will be treated as a non-taxable stock acquisition and therefore Extreme Networks will have carryover tax basis in the assets and liabilities acquired.

The Company had $25.5 million of unrecognized tax benefits as of September 30, 2019.  The future impact of the unrecognized tax benefit of $25.1 million, if recognized, would result in adjustments to deferred tax assets and corresponding adjustments to the valuation allowance. The remaining $0.4 million would affect the effective tax rate.  The Company does not anticipate any events to occur during the next twelve months that would reduce the unrealized tax benefit as currently stated in the Company’s balance sheet.

The Company’s policy is to accrue interest and penalties related to the underpayment of income taxes as a component of tax expense in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations.

In general, the Company’s U.S. federal income tax returns are subject to examination by tax authorities for fiscal years 2001 forward due to net operating losses and the Company's state income tax returns are subject to examination for fiscal years 2000 forward due to net operating losses. The Company recently settled an examination by the state of North Carolina for fiscal years ended 2014, 2015 and 2016. The settlement resulted in an immaterial payment to the state to close all three years.