Income Taxes

6 Months Ended

Jul. 28, 2012

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

Note 6.  Income Taxes

The effective tax rate was 40.1% for the second quarter of fiscal 2012. The effective tax rate was 36.7% for the second quarter of fiscal 2011. As a result of our low income base for the second quarter of each of fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2011, our effective rate is highly sensitive to changes caused by discrete items and permanent differences (i.e. differences between book income and tax income that are not expected to reverse in future periods).

The effective tax rate was 36.6% for the first six months of fiscal 2012. The effective tax rate was 38.3% for the first six months of fiscal 2011. The rate was lower than the prior year six month tax rate due primarily to a favorable impact related to our reserve for uncertain tax positions. We currently estimate our annualized effective tax rate for fiscal 2012 to be 37.6%.