Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

15. Income Taxes

For the three months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, the Company recorded an income tax provision of $1.3 million and $1.6 million, respectively.

The income tax provisions for the three months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, 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 wireless local area network (“WLAN”) business from Zebra Technologies Corporation, the Campus Fabric Business from Avaya and the Data Center Business from Brocade, and (4) state taxes in jurisdictions where the Company has no remaining state net operating losses (“NOLs”). The interim income tax provisions for the three months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019 were calculated using the discrete effective tax rate method as allowed by Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) 740-270-30-18, “Income Taxes – Interim Reporting.”  The discrete method is applied when the application of the estimated annual effective tax rate is impractical because it is not possible to reliably estimate the annual effective tax rate.  The discrete method treats the year to date period as if it was the annual period and determines the income tax expense or benefit on that basis.  The Company believes that, at this time, the use of this discrete method is more appropriate than the annual effective tax rate method as (i) the estimated annual effective tax rate method is not reliable due to the high degree of uncertainty in estimating annual pretax earnings and (ii) the Company’s ongoing assessment that the recoverability of certain U.S. and Irish deferred tax assets is not more likely than not.

On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”) was signed into law in the United States.  The CARES Act, among other things, includes modifications to net operating loss carryforward provisions and the net interest expense deduction, and deferment of employer social security tax payments.  The Company has evaluated the provisions of the CARES Act and how certain elections may impact its financial position and results of operations, and has determined the enactment of the CARES Act did not have a material impact to the Company’s income tax provision for the three months ended September 30, 2020, or to the Company’s net deferred tax assets as of September 30, 2020.      

The Company has provided a full valuation allowance against all of 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 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 and the cyclical nature of its business represent sufficient negative evidence to require full valuation allowances against its U.S. federal and state net deferred tax assets as well as a portion of the deferred tax assets in Ireland.  These valuation allowances 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 was treated as a non-taxable stock acquisition and, therefore, Extreme Networks will have carryover tax basis in the assets and liabilities acquired. During the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020 following the acquisition of Aerohive, the Company realigned the Aerohive related non U.S. intellectual property (“IP”) rights to correspond with the Company’s global operating model.  This transaction resulted in recognition of a $75 million U.S. tax gain

which was fully consumed by existing NOLs and the intangibles transferred are being amortized over 10 years for Irish statutory purposes.

The Company had $23.8 million of unrecognized tax benefits as of September 30, 2020.  If fully recognized in the future, $0.5 million would impact the effective tax rate and $23.3 million, would result in adjustments to deferred tax assets and corresponding adjustments to the valuation allowance with no impact to 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 is not currently under audit in any material jurisdictions.