Income Tax Matters

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

The provision for incomes taxes for each period presented consisted of the following (in millions of dollars):



	Quarter Ended
	March 31,
	2017		2016
Domestic	$	18.3	$	14.9
Foreign	0.2		0.2
Total	$	18.5	$	15.1

The income tax provision for the quarters ended March 31, 2017 and March 31, 2016 was $18.5 million and $15.1 million, reflecting an effective tax rate of 34.0% and 36.5%, respectively. The difference between the effective tax rate and the projected blended statutory tax rate for the quarter ended March 31, 2017 was due to: (i) a decrease of $1.6 million for the recognition of excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation, resulting in a 2.9% decrease to the blended statutory tax rate and (ii) a decrease of $0.4 million to the valuation allowance for certain state net operating losses, resulting in a 0.8% decrease to the blended statutory tax rate. The difference between the effective tax rate and the projected blended statutory tax rate for the quarter ended March 31, 2016 was due to: (i) a decrease of $0.7 million for the recognition of excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation, resulting in a 1.7% decrease to the blended statutory tax rate, which was partially offset by (ii) an increase of $0.3 million to the valuation allowance for certain state net operating losses, resulting in a 0.7% increase to the blended statutory tax rate.

Our gross unrecognized benefits relating to uncertain tax positions were $1.8 million at both March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016, of which, $0.7 million would be recorded through our income tax provision and thus impact the effective tax rate at both March 31, 2017 and December 31, 2016 if the gross unrecognized tax benefits were to be recognized.

We do not expect our gross unrecognized tax benefits to significantly change within the next 12 months.