Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Income Taxes [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Note D – Income Taxes

Our first quarter 2012 income tax provision of $4.5 million resulted in an effective income tax rate of 39.8%. Our effective income tax rate is derived by estimating pretax income and income tax expense for the year ending December 31, 2012. The effective income tax rate calculated for the first quarter of 2012 is higher than the federal statutory rate of 35.0%, primarily due to the addition of state income taxes.

Harte-Hanks, or one of our subsidiaries, files income tax returns in the U.S. federal, U.S. state and foreign jurisdictions. For U.S. federal, U.S. state and foreign returns, we are no longer subject to tax examinations for years prior to 2007.

We have elected to classify any interest expense and penalties related to income taxes within income tax expense in our Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income. We did not have a significant amount of interest or penalties accrued at March 31, 2012 or December 31, 2011.