Income taxes

6 Months Ended

Apr. 30, 2019

Note 11 - Income taxes

On December 22, 2017, the U.S. President signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”). The Tax Act, among other things, lowered the U.S. corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21% effective January 1, 2018. In December 2017, the SEC staff issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118, Income Tax Accounting Implications of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (SAB 118), which allowed us to record provisional amounts during a measurement period not to extend beyond one year of the enactment date. As a result, we previously recorded a provisional estimate of the effect of the Tax Act in our financial statements. In the first quarter of 2019, we completed our analysis to determine the effect of the Tax Act and recorded no additional adjustments as of December 22, 2018.

The Company uses an estimated annual effective tax rate, which is based on expected annual income, statutory tax rates and tax planning opportunities available in the various jurisdictions in which the Company operates, to determine its quarterly provision (benefit) for income taxes. Certain significant or unusual items are separately recognized in the quarter in which they occur and can be a source of variability in the effective tax rates from quarter to quarter.

The provision for income taxes was 23% and 20% of income before income taxes for the three months ended April 30, 2019 (the “fiscal 2019 quarter”) and 2018 (the “fiscal 2018 quarter”), respectively, and 22% and 20% of income before income taxes for the six months ended April 30, 2019 and 2018.

The increase in the effective tax rate from period to period was primarily driven by the elimination of the benefit from the domestic production activities deduction and the one-time benefit recorded in the prior year related to the reduction in the Company’s deferred tax liability due to the change in the federal tax rate, both as a result of the Tax Act. The Company recorded income from discontinued operations, net of tax, as disclosed in Note 3.

The Company had $90,000 and $58,000 of unrecognized tax benefits, inclusive of interest and penalties, as of April 30, 2019 and October 31, 2018, respectively. The unrecognized tax benefits, if recognized, would result in a net tax benefit of $15,000 as of April 30, 2019.