INCOME TAXES

Income tax provision for continuing operations was $0.9 million for the six months ended March 31, 2017. Net tax benefits specific to the six months ended March 31, 2017 were $0.1 million resulting primarily from the reversal of tax reserves due to the expiration of statutes of limitation from U.S. and foreign tax jurisdictions. For the six months ended March 31, 2017, our continuing operations effective tax rate before items specific to the period was less than the U.S. statutory rate due primarily to the mix of income between taxing jurisdictions, certain of which have lower statutory tax rates than the U.S., and also due to certain tax credits in the U.S.

Income tax provision for continuing operations was $1.5 million for the six months ended March 31, 2016. Net tax benefits specific to the six months ended March 31, 2016 were $0.7 million which resulted from the reinstatement of the federal research and development tax credit for calendar year 2015 and reversal of tax reserves due to the expiration of statutes of limitation from U.S. and foreign tax jurisdictions. For the six months ended March 31, 2016, our continuing operations effective tax rate before items specific to the period was less than the U.S. statutory rate primarily due to the mix of income between taxing jurisdictions, certain of which have lower statutory tax rates than the U.S., and certain tax credits in the U.S.

Our effective tax rate will vary based on a variety of factors, including overall profitability, the geographical mix of income before taxes and related statutory tax rate in each jurisdiction, and tax items specific to the period, such as settlements of audits. We expect that we may record other benefits or expenses in the future that are specific to a particular quarter such as expiration of statutes of limitation, the completion of tax audits, or legislation that is enacted for both U.S. and foreign jurisdictions.

A reconciliation of the beginning and ending amount of unrecognized tax benefits is (in thousands):



Unrecognized tax benefits as of September 30, 2016	$	1,708
Decreases related to:
Expiration of statute of limitations	(79		)
Unrecognized tax benefits as of March 31, 2017	$	1,629

The total amount of unrecognized tax benefits that, if recognized, would affect our effective tax rate is $1.4 million, after considering the impact of interest and deferred benefit items. We expect that the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits will decrease by approximately $0.7 million over the next 12 months.