Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2024

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

6. Income Taxes

For the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, we recorded $40.6 million and $63.2 million of income tax expense and had an effective tax rate of 21.6% and 24.9%, respectively. The decrease in our effective tax rate for the three months ended March 31, 2024 compared to the same period in 2023 was primarily due to higher excess tax benefits associated with employee restricted stock and performance unit vests.

Our current effective tax rate is higher than the federal statutory income tax rate of 21.0% due primarily to the effect of state and local income taxes. During the three months ended March 31, 2024 and 2023, cash paid for taxes, net of refunds received, was $10.3 million and $6.9 million, respectively. The increase in cash tax payments between the periods is primarily attributable to the 2023 year having been reduced by an applied overpayment of state taxes from the prior year with no equivalent impact in 2024.

During the three months ended March 31, 2024, there were no significant changes to our uncertain tax positions. For more information, see Note 7, Income Taxes, of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in “Part II, Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of our 2023 Annual Report on Form 10-K.