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Income Taxes
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2014
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
Income Taxes
Income Taxes:
At March 31, 2014, we had $21.5 million of unrecognized tax benefits recorded in Other liabilities. If these unrecognized tax benefits were recognized, the effective tax rate would be affected.
At March 31, 2014, the Company had accrued interest and penalties of $2.3 million classified in Other liabilities.
The Company regularly repatriates a portion of current year earnings from select non–U.S. subsidiaries. No provision is made for additional taxes on undistributed earnings of subsidiary companies that are intended and planned to be indefinitely invested in such subsidiaries. We intend to, and have plans to, reinvest these earnings indefinitely in our foreign subsidiaries to fund local operations and/or capital projects.
The Company has ongoing income tax audits and legal proceedings which are at various stages of administrative or judicial review, of which the most significant items are discussed below. In addition, the Company has other ongoing tax audits and legal proceedings that relate to indirect taxes, such as value-added taxes, capital tax, sales and use taxes and property taxes, which are discussed in Note 12.
As of March 31, 2014, the Company had one outstanding income tax case in Spain relating to fisca1 year 2002. The Company has fully reserved the assessment originally asserted by the Spanish tax authority. The Company is awaiting a decision on its appeal, and in order to proceed with the appeal, the Company was required to post a bank guaranty, which as of March 31, 2014, was in the amount of Euro 1.8 million ($2.5 million).
In addition to the above, the Company has also been a party to dividend withholding tax controversies in Spain. At March 31, 2014, the Company had Euro 4.5 million ($6.2 million) reflected in income taxes payable in connection with three of these cases. The fourth and final remaining case is under appeal and has not yet been heard by the Spanish Supreme Court, with an aggregate value of Euro 3.2 million ($4.5 million), including estimated interest, which is fully reserved as of March 31, 2014. As of March 31, 2014, the Company had posted bank guarantees of Euro 7.7 million ($10.7 million) in order to proceed with the appeal.
In addition to the Spanish tax controversy, the Company has several other tax audits in process and has open tax years with various taxing jurisdictions that range primarily from 2004 to 2013. Based on currently available information, we do not believe the ultimate outcome of any of these tax audits and other tax positions related to open tax years, when finalized, will have a material impact on our financial position.
As of March 31, 2014, the Company’s aggregate provisions for uncertain tax positions, including interest and penalties, was $23.8 million, which includes $2.2 million associated with the tax positions taken by our Spanish subsidiaries for the 2002 fiscal year, $3.8 million associated with our Spanish dividend withholding tax controversies and the remainder associated with various other tax positions asserted in foreign jurisdictions, none of which is individually material.
The effective tax rate for the three months ended March 31, 2014 was 25.3% compared with 28.9% for the three months ended March 31, 2013. The effective tax rate for the 2013 first quarter includes a $6.2 million after-tax charge associated with the 2002-2003 tax ruling during the first quarter of 2013, which was partially offset by a $2.7 million benefit associated with U.S. tax legislation enacted in the first quarter of 2013 (including the R&D tax credit). The quarter-over-quarter decrease is principally driven by the absence of the $6.2 million after-tax charge partially offset by the expiration of the R&D tax credit in December 2013.