INCOME TAXES (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

The components of income before income taxes from operations are as follows:

The components of the provision for income taxes from operations are as follows:

The reconciliation of the U.S. federal statutory tax rate to the effective rate for the years ended is as follows:



	December 31,
	2011		2010		2009

Statutory U. S. federal income tax rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
Effect of:
State income taxes, net of federal benefit	0.3		0.9		1.0
Federal benefit of R&D and foreign tax credits	(8.6	)	(6.9	)	(11.3	)
Tax effect of international operations	(7.9	)	(3.7	)	0.7
Net effect of tax audit activity	2.1		1.0		(1.3	)
Tax effect of enacted statutory rate changes	0.2		—		—
Federal tax on unremitted earnings of certain foreign subsidiaries	0.1		0.2		0.1
Valuation allowance adjustments	(18.1	)	(1.0	)	—
Other	1.2		(0.5	)	0.3

Effective income tax rate on operations	4.3	%	25.0	%	24.5	%

The tax effect of significant temporary differences giving rise to deferred tax assets and liabilities are as follows:



	December 31, 2011					December 31, 2010
(in thousands)	Deferred Tax Asset			Deferred Tax Liability		Deferred Tax Asset			Deferred Tax Liability

Commission and bonus accrual	$	2,812		$	—	$	1,201		$	—
Employee benefit accruals	38,061			—		33,139			—
Inventory	19,972			—		17,497			—
Identifiable intangible assets	—			336,822		—			138,621
Insurance premium accruals	4,533			—		4,610			—
Miscellaneous accruals	12,273			—		7,088			—
Other	13,166			—		13,820			—
Unrealized losses included in other
comprehensive income	28,424			—		59,618			—
Property, plant and equipment	—			52,251		—			36,881
Product warranty accruals	907			—		901			—
R&D and foreign tax credit carryforward	49,552			—		34,844			—
Restructuring and other cost accruals	1,439			—		1,011			—
Sales and marketing accrual	4,874			—		4,545			—
Taxes on unremitted earnings of foreign subsidiaries	—			2,273		—			2,083
Tax loss carryforwards and other tax attributes	152,999			—		111,948			—
Valuation allowance	(71,758		)	—		(93,054		)	—
	$	257,254		$	391,346	$	197,168		$	177,585

Deferred tax assets and liabilities are included in the following consolidated balance sheet line items:



	December 31,
(in thousands)	2011		2010

Prepaid expenses and other current assets	$	67,159	$	55,747
Income taxes payable	2,678		3,004
Other noncurrent assets	51,250		39,329
Deferred income taxes	249,822		72,489

The Company had the following activity recorded for unrecognized tax benefits:



	December 31,
(in thousands)	2011			2010			2009

Unrecognized tax benefits at beginning of period	$	13,143		$	12,864		$	17,285
Gross change for prior period positions	1,425			47			(5,120		)
Gross change for current year positions	640			1,036			1,630
Decrease due to settlements and payments	—			—			(255		)
Decrease due to statute expirations	(123		)	(424		)	(1,026		)
Increase due to effect of foreign currency translation	—			—			350
Decrease due to effect from foreign currency translation	(129		)	(380		)	—

Unrecognized tax benefits at end of period	$	14,956		$	13,143		$	12,864