Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 28, 2020

Our income tax expense and effective income tax rate were as follows (dollars in thousands):


	13 Weeks Ended
	March 28, 2020			March 30, 2019
Income tax expense (benefit)	$	(1,801)		$	1,444
Effective income tax rate	(16.6)		%	27.7		%

The decrease in our effective income tax rate for the 13 weeks ended March 28, 2020 compared to the corresponding period in fiscal 2019 was primarily due to excess tax benefits related to the exercise of stock options and vesting of employee restricted stock units. Our effective income tax rate for the 13 weeks ended March 30, 2019, excluding the impact of excess tax benefits, is higher than the U.S. statutory income tax rate of 21% primarily due to state income taxes and permanently nondeductible expenses.

Our policy is to include interest and penalties associated with uncertain tax positions within income tax expense and include accrued interest and penalties with the related income tax liability on our condensed consolidated balance sheets. To date, we have not recognized any interest and penalties in our condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income, nor have we accrued for or made payments for interest and penalties. As of March 28, 2020 and December 28, 2019, we had no uncertain tax positions and do not anticipate any changes to our uncertain tax positions within the next 12 months