Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

Note 12— Income Taxes

The following table shows the changes in our provision for income taxes (in millions) and our consolidated effective federal and state income tax rates for the applicable periods ended September 30:

	Three Months Ended						Nine Months Ended						Twelve Months Ended
	2012			2011			2012			2011			2012			2011
Consolidated provision for income taxes	$	15.5		$	15.7		$	28.4		$	28.5		$	34.3		$	32.7
Consolidated effective federal and state income tax rates	37.7		%	38.3		%	38.2		%	38.1		%	38.5		%	37.4		%

Amortization of certain cost of removal tax benefits began in March 2010 due to a rate order issued for our 2009 Missouri rate case. This amortization increased the effective tax rates and is the primary cause of the increase noted in the twelve month comparative periods. When we filed our recent Missouri rate case, the amortization temporarily ceased until further treatment is decided. The three month period effective tax rate decreased primarily due to this amortization ceasing.

We do not have any unrecognized tax benefits as of September 30, 2012. We did not recognize any significant interest or penalties during 2011 and 2010. We do not expect any significant changes to our unrecognized tax benefits over the next twelve months.