Income Taxes:

The components of income before provision for income taxes were as follows (in thousands):



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2011		2010		2009
Domestic	$	257,656	$	235,892	$	221,071
Foreign	49,539		26,480		16,161
Income before provision for income taxes	$	307,195	$	262,372	$	237,232

The provision for income taxes consisted of the following (in thousands):



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2011			2010		2009
Current tax provision
Federal	$	39,517		$	19,619	$	1,393
State	2,953			4,993		4,229
Foreign	10,193			4,078		3,991
Deferred tax provision (benefit)
Federal	54,980			55,335		76,410
State	4,413			2,393		2,068
Foreign	1,209			4,269		3,238
Change in valuation allowance	(6,974		)	465		(10		)
	$	106,291		$	91,152	$	91,319

The Company’s effective rate differed from the statutory rate as follows:



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2011		2010		2009
United States federal income tax rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
State taxes	2.8		2.9		3.7
Nondeductible stock-based compensation	0.8		0.1		1.2
United States federal and state research and development credits	(2.4	)	(2.6	)	(1.4	)
Change in state tax rates	(0.1	)	0.5		—
Foreign earnings	(2.2	)	(0.4	)	0.1
Expiration of capital loss carryforward	2.1		—		—
Other	0.9		(1.0	)	(0.1	)
Change in the deferred tax asset valuation allowance	(2.3	)	0.2		—
	34.6	%	34.7	%	38.5	%

The components of the net deferred tax asset and the related valuation allowance were as follows (in thousands):



	December 31,
	2011			2010
Net operating loss and credit carryforwards	$	9,323		$	35,202
Depreciation and amortization	30,702			60,935
Compensation costs	35,959			32,221
Impairment loss on marketable securities	—			5,005
Other	15,530			20,782
Deferred tax assets	91,514			154,145
Acquired intangible assets not deductible	(16,972		)	(22,784		)
Internal-use software capitalized	(24,165		)	(20,527		)
Impairment loss on marketable securities	(15		)	—
Deferred tax liabilities	(41,152		)	(43,311		)
Valuation allowance	(433		)	(7,407		)
Net deferred tax assets	$	49,929		$	103,427

As of December 31, 2011, the Company had utilized all of its United States federal NOL carryforwards that were held as of December 31, 2010. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had United States federal NOL carryforwards of approximately $8.8 million, and as of December 31, 2011 and 2010, the Company had state NOL carryforwards of approximately $51.4 million and $61.3 million, respectively, which expire at various dates through 2024. The Company also had foreign NOL carryforwards of approximately $0.7 million and $1.1 million as of December 31, 2011 and 2010, respectively. The majority of the foreign NOL carryforwards have no expiration dates. As of December 31, 2011 and 2010, the Company had United States federal and state research and development tax credit carryforwards of $6.5 million and $19.8 million, respectively, which will expire at various dates through 2026. As of each of December 31, 2011 and 2010, the Company had foreign tax credit carryforwards of $4.3 million, which will expire at various dates through 2020. As of December 31, 2011, the Company had utilized all of its alternative minimum tax credit carryforwards that were held as of December 31, 2010. As of December 31, 2010, the Company had alternative minimum tax credit carryforwards of $10.9 million. As of December 31, 2011 and 2010, the Company has recorded a valuation allowance on certain NOL and capital loss carryforwards for $0.4 million and $7.4 million, respectively.

As of December 31, 2011, unrepatriated earnings of non-U.S. subsidiaries totaled $82.9 million. No provision for U.S. income and foreign withholding taxes has been made for unrepatriated foreign earnings because it is expected that such earnings will be reinvested indefinitely. If these earnings were distributed to the United States in the form of dividends or otherwise, it would be included in the Company's U.S. taxable income. Determination of the amount of unrecognized deferred income tax liability related to these earnings is not practicable.

The following is a roll-forward of the Company’s unrecognized tax benefits (in millions):



	For the Years Ended December 31,
	2011			2010
Unrecognized tax benefits — at beginning of year	$	10.8		$	7.0
Gross increases — tax positions of prior periods	—			1.5
Gross increases — current-period tax positions	2.8			2.3
Gross decreases — tax positions of prior periods	(0.8		)	—
Gross decreases — settlements	(0.3		)	—
Unrecognized tax benefits — at end of year	$	12.5		$	10.8

As of December 31, 2011 and 2010, the Company had approximately $17.2 million and $15.1 million, respectively, of total unrecognized tax benefits, including $4.7 million and $4.3 million, respectively, of accrued interest and penalties. Interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits are recorded in income tax expense. If recognized, all amounts of unrecognized tax benefits would have resulted in a reduction of income tax expense, impacting the effective income tax rate.

Generally, all tax years are open for examination by the major taxing jurisdictions to which the Company is subject including federal, state and foreign jurisdictions due to net operating losses and the limited number of prior year audits by taxing jurisdictions.