Taxes on Income

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Taxes on Income [Abstract]

Taxes on Income [Text Block]

Note 12 – Taxes on Income

Taxes (benefit) on income consist of the following:

			Year Ended December 31,
			2011		2010		2009
Current:
	Federal	$	3,485	$	1,429	$	1,266
	State		385		195		133
	Foreign		7,955		9,143		6,171
			11,825		10,767		7,570
Deferred:
	Federal		2,022		1,204		(948)
	Foreign		409		645		443
Total		$	14,256	$	12,616	$	7,065

The components of earnings (losses) before income taxes were as follows:

		Year Ended December 31,
		2011		2010		2009
Domestic	$	24,071	$	9,482	$	(1,920)
Foreign		35,306		36,731		25,612
Total	$	59,377	$	46,213	$	23,692

Total deferred tax assets and liabilities are composed of the following at December 31:

	2011				2010
		Current		Non-current		Current		Non-current
Retirement benefits	$	808	$	9,907	$	534	$	7,720
Allowance for doubtful accounts		755		0		550		0
Insurance and litigation reserves		683		424		574		395
Postretirement benefits		0		2,259		0		2,447
Supplemental retirement benefits		69		2,303		0		1,811
Performance incentives		3,139		383		3,041		418
Equity-based compensation		239		449		185		411
Alternative minimum tax carryforward		0		447		0		2,092
Insurance settlement		26		9,698		0		10,314
Operating loss carryforward		0		3,010		0		3,837
Foreign tax credit and other credits		0		0		0		3,395
Uncertain tax positions		0		7,911		163		3,871
Interest rate swaps and other		786		216		0		511
		6,505		37,007		5,047		37,222
Valuation allowance		0		(1,377)		(393)		(4,530)
Total deferred income tax assets, net	$	6,505	$	35,630	$	4,654	$	32,692
Depreciation		0		3,123		0		1,798
Europe pension and other		0		2,481		0		2,472
Amortization and other		405		7,297		211		5,684
Total deferred income tax liabilities	$	405	$	12,901	$	211	$	9,954

Following are the changes in the Company's deferred tax asset valuation allowance for the years ended December 31, 2011, December 31,2010 and December 31,2009:

								Effect of
		Balance at		Additional		Allowance		Exchange		Balance
		Beginning		Valuation		Utilization		Rate		at End
		of Period		Allowance		and Other		Changes		of Period
VALUATION ALLOWANCE
Year ended December 31, 2011	$	4,923	$	348	$	(3,753)	$	(141)	$	1,377
Year ended December 31, 2010	$	5,666	$	38	$	(769)	$	(12)	$	4,923
Year ended December 31, 2009	$	5,228	$	1,397	$	(1,188)	$	229	$	5,666

The Company's net deferred tax assets and liabilities are classified in the Consolidated Balance Sheet as follows:

	2011		2010
Current deferred tax assets	$	6,338	$	4,624
Non-current deferred tax assets		29,823		28,846
Current deferred tax liabilities		238		181
Non-current deferred tax liabilities		7,094		6,108
Net deferred tax asset	$	28,829	$	27,181

The following is a reconciliation of income taxes at the Federal statutory rate with income taxes recorded by the Company for the years ended December 31, 2011, December 31, 2010 and December 31, 2009:

			2011		2010		2009
Income tax provision at the Federal statutory tax rate		$	20,782	$	16,175	$	8,292
Differences in tax rates on foreign earnings and
	remittances		(3,692)		(2,546)		(2,106)
Foreign dividends			735		15,645		159
Excess foreign tax credit utilization			(2,493)		(15,198)		0
Research and development activities credit utilization			(1,348)		0		0
Uncertain tax positions			701		(1,130)		457
Domestic production activities deduction			0		(932)		0
State income tax provisions, net			250		127		86
Non-deductible entertainment and business meals
	expense		166		152		118
Non-taxable gain on acquisition			(951)		0		0
Miscellaneous items, net			106		323		59
Taxes on income		$	14,256	$	12,616	$	7,065

At December 31, 2011, the Company domestically had a net deferred tax asset of $17,665 inclusive of alternative minimum tax (AMT) credits of $447. In addition, the Company has foreign tax loss carryforwards of $10,295 of which $33expires in 2014, $324 in 2015, $96 in 2016, $246 in 2018, $289 in 2019, $100 in 2020, $251 in 2021 and $673 in 2023; the remaining foreign tax losses have no expiration dates. A partial valuation allowance has been established with respect to the tax benefit of these losses for $1,331.

In 2011, the Italian parliament repealed the five-year net operating loss carryforward limitation and enacted legislation which introduced an unlimited net operating loss carryforward subject to an 80% taxable income utilization cap. At December 31, 2011, the Company had $3,143 of net operating loss carryforwards at its Italian subsidiary.

U.S. income taxes have not been provided on the undistributed earnings of non-U.S. subsidiaries because it is the Company's intention to continue to reinvest these earnings in those subsidiaries to support growth initiatives. U.S. and foreign income taxes that would be payable if such earnings were distributed may be lower than the amount computed at the U.S. statutory rate due to the availability of tax credits. The amount of such undistributed earnings at December 31,2011 was approximately $120,000. Any income tax liability which might result from ultimate remittance of these earnings is expected to be substantially offset by foreign tax credits.