Income Taxes

On December 22, 2017, the TCJA was enacted into law. The TCJA made significant changes to U.S. tax laws, including, but not limited to, the following: (a) reducing the federal corporate income tax rate from 35% to 21%, effective January 1, 2018; (b) eliminating the federal corporate alternative minimum tax (“AMT”) and changing how existing AMT credits can be realized; and (c) eliminating several business deductions and credits, including deductions for certain executive compensation in excess of $1 million. Overall, we expect the TCJA to favorably impact our effective tax rate, net income and cash flows in future periods.

In December 2017, the SEC issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 (“SAB 118”), which provides guidance on accounting for the income tax effects of the TCJA. SAB 118 provides a measurement period that should not extend beyond one year from the TCJA enactment date for companies to complete the accounting relating to the TCJA under Accounting Standards Codification Topic 740, “Income Taxes” (“ASC 740”). In accordance with SAB 118, a company must reflect the income tax effects of those aspects of the TCJA for which the accounting under ASC 740 is complete. To the extent that a company’s accounting for TCJA-related income tax effects is incomplete, but the company is able to determine a reasonable estimate, it must record a provisional estimate in its financial statements. If a company cannot determine a provisional estimate to be included in its financial statements, it should continue to apply ASC 740 on the basis of the provisions of the tax laws that were in effect immediately before the enactment of the TCJA.

We have not completed our analysis of the TCJA’s income tax effects; however, as described below, we have provided provisional estimates of the TCJA’s impact on our income tax expense for the nine months ended August 31, 2018 in accordance with the guidance and interpretations available. In total, we recorded a non-cash charge of $111.2 million to income tax expense in the 2018 first quarter for TCJA-related impacts. In accordance with SAB 118, TCJA-related income tax effects initially reported as provisional estimates may be refined as additional analysis is completed based on obtaining, preparing, or analyzing additional information about facts and circumstances that existed as of the enactment date. In addition, the provisional amounts may be affected by our results for the year ending November 30, 2018 as well as additional regulatory guidance or related interpretations that may be issued by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), changes in accounting standards, or federal or state legislative actions. We anticipate finalizing our analysis within SAB 118’s one-year measurement period. The following provisional estimates of TCJA-related impacts were reflected in our consolidated financial statements for the nine months ended August 31, 2018:

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In the first quarter, we recorded a charge of $107.9 million in income tax expense due to the accounting re-measurement of our deferred tax assets based on the lower federal corporate income tax rate under the TCJA. However, we are still analyzing certain aspects of the TCJA and refining our calculations, which could potentially affect the measurement of our deferred tax assets or result in new deferred tax amounts.

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We have AMT credit carryforwards that do not expire and can be used to offset regular income taxes in future years. Under the TCJA, we may claim a refund of 50% of our remaining AMT credits in 2019, 2020, and 2021 to the extent the credits exceed regular tax for any such year. Any AMT credits remaining after our fiscal year ending November 30, 2021 will be refunded in 2022. We currently estimate our refund will total approximately $50.0 million. As the refund is subject to a sequestration reduction rate of approximately 6.6%, we established a federal deferred tax valuation allowance of $3.3 million during the nine months ended August 31, 2018. Our accounting policy regarding the balance sheet presentation of the AMT credits is to maintain the balance in deferred tax assets until a tax return is filed claiming a refund of a portion of the credit, at which time the amount will be presented in receivables.

We evaluated the future deductibility of executive compensation due to the TCJA’s elimination of a federal tax law provision that permitted certain performance-based compensation to be deductible, as well as its modification of who is a covered employee with respect to the deduction limit, and a transition rule that would preserve the deductibility of certain 2018 performance-based compensation payable under written binding contracts in place prior to November 2, 2017 that have not been modified in any material respect. We are still analyzing the applicable aspects of the TCJA along with recent IRS guidance in this area. Based on our analysis of the current transition rule standards and IRS guidance, we did not record an impact for this change in tax law in the nine months ended August 31, 2018.

Income Tax Expense. Our income tax expense and effective tax rates were as follows (dollars in thousands):



	Three Months Ended August 31,						Nine Months Ended August 31,
	2018			2017			2018			2017
Income tax expense	$	27,200		$	29,000		$	165,500		$	56,400
Effective tax rate	23.7		%	36.6		%	69.2		%	36.9		%

Our income tax expense and effective tax rate for the three months ended August 31, 2018 included the favorable effect of the reduction in the federal corporate income tax rate under the TCJA; the favorable net impact of federal energy tax credits of $3.0 million that we earned from building energy efficient homes; and excess tax benefits of $.6 million related to stock-based compensation due to our adoption of ASU 2016-09, as further described in Note 1 – Basis of Presentation and Significant Accounting Policies. Our income tax expense and effective tax rate for the nine months ended August 31, 2018 included the above-described charge of $111.2 million for TCJA-related impacts; the favorable effect of the reduction in the federal corporate income tax rate under the TCJA; the favorable net impact of federal energy tax credits of $7.2 million; and excess tax benefits of $3.0 million related to stock-based compensation. The TCJA requires us to use a blended federal tax rate for our 2018 fiscal year by applying a prorated percentage of days before and after the January 1, 2018 effective date. As a result, our 2018 annual federal statutory tax rate has been reduced to 22.2%. The federal energy tax credits for the three-month and nine-month periods ended August 31, 2018 resulted from legislation enacted on February 9, 2018, which among other things, extended the availability of a business tax credit for building new energy efficient homes through December 31, 2017. Prior to this legislation, the tax credit expired on December 31, 2016.

Our income tax expense and effective tax rate for the three-month and nine-month periods ended August 31, 2017 included the favorable net impact of federal energy tax credits of $2.6 million and $3.8 million, respectively, that we earned from building energy efficient homes through December 31, 2016.

Deferred Tax Asset Valuation Allowance. We evaluate our deferred tax assets quarterly to determine if adjustments to our valuation allowance are required based on the consideration of all available positive and negative evidence using a “more likely than not” standard with respect to whether deferred tax assets will be realized. Our evaluation considers, among other factors, our historical operating results, our expectation of future profitability, the duration of the applicable statutory carryforward periods, and conditions in the housing market and the broader economy. The ultimate realization of our deferred tax assets depends primarily on our ability to generate future taxable income during the periods in which the related deferred tax assets become deductible. The value of our deferred tax assets depends on applicable income tax rates.

Our deferred tax assets of $495.9 million as of August 31, 2018, after the above-described accounting re-measurement, and $657.2 million as of November 30, 2017 were partly offset by valuation allowances of $26.9 million and $23.6 million, respectively. As part of our analysis of the TCJA’s income tax effects described above, we increased our deferred tax asset valuation allowance by $3.3 million during the nine months ended August 31, 2018. The deferred tax asset valuation allowances as of August 31, 2018 and November 30, 2017 were primarily related to certain state net operating losses (“NOLs”) that had not met the “more likely than not” realization standard at those dates. Based on our evaluation of our deferred tax assets as of August 31, 2018, we determined that most of our deferred tax assets would be realized. Therefore, other than the $3.3 million discussed above, no adjustments to our deferred tax valuation allowance were needed for the nine months ended August 31, 2018.

We will continue to evaluate both the positive and negative evidence on a quarterly basis in determining the need for a valuation allowance with respect to our deferred tax assets. The accounting for deferred tax assets is based upon estimates of future results. Changes in positive and negative evidence, including differences between estimated and actual results, could result in changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets that could have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. Changes in existing federal and state tax laws and corporate income tax rates could also affect actual tax results and the realization of deferred tax assets over time.

Unrecognized Tax Benefits. As of August 31, 2018, we had no gross unrecognized tax benefits. As of November 30, 2017, our gross unrecognized tax benefits (including interest and penalties) totaled $.1 million. The fiscal years ending 2015 and later remain open to federal examinations, while 2014 and later remain open to state examinations.