Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Jan. 01, 2012

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

8. Income Taxes

The effective tax rates for the first quarters of fiscal 2012 and 2011 were 34.7% and 31.1%, respectively.  In the first quarter of fiscal 2011, the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 was re-signed into law, including a retroactive extension of federal research and experimentation credits (“R&E credits”) for amounts incurred from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2011.  As a result of the retroactive extension, a $1.2 million benefit from R&E credits for the last nine months of fiscal 2010 was included in our first quarter of fiscal 2011 tax expense, resulting in a lower effective tax rate in fiscal 2011.  With the expiration of federal R&E credits on December 31, 2011, we estimated a benefit from these credits only through the expiration date.  Should the R&E credits provision be retroactively extended during fiscal 2012, additional benefits will be reflected in our effective tax rate during the quarter reporting period of enactment.