Note 8 - Accounting for Share-based Payment Arrangement Compensation/Excess Tax Benefit Reclassification

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2017

Notes to Financial Statements

Disclosure of Compensation Related Costs, Share-based Payments [Text Block]

(

8

) Accounting for Share-based Payment Arrangement Compensation/Excess Tax Benefit Reclassification

We account for share-based payment arrangements in accordan

ce with Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification, or FASB ASC,

718,

Compensation – Stock Compensation

. During the

first

nine

months of

2017,

there were

no

significant changes to the structure of our stock-based award plans. Pre-tax compensation expense related to stock options and performance unit awards recorded in the

first

nine

months of

2017

and

2016

was

$916,000

and

$741,000,

respectively. See Note

11

to our consolidated financial statements in our

2016

Annual Report on Form

10

-K for a detailed description of stock-based awards.

Effective

January 1, 2017,

we adopted the provisions of Accounting Standards Update

No.

2016

-

09,

“

Compensation - Stock Compensation: Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting” which simplifies several aspects of the accounting for share-based payment transactions. The adoption of this standard resulted in a

$152,000

decrease to our provision for income taxes in the

first

nine

months of

2017,

as the actual increase in our stock price exceeded the grant-date fair value of the period’s exercised options and vested performance unit awards. Excess tax benefits were recognized in additional paid-in capital through

2016.

This standard also changes the classification of excess tax benefits in the statements of cash flows. We retrospectively reclassified

$129,000

of excess tax benefits for the

first

nine

months of

2016

from a financing to operating activity within our

2017

consolidated condensed statements of cash flows.