Income Tax Provision

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2017

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Tax Provision

Income Tax Provision

For the three months ended March 31, 2017 and March 31, 2016, we had effective income tax rates of 10.2% and 33.9%, respectively. The effective income tax rates for the periods presented were different from the statutory United States federal income tax rate of 35% principally due to excess tax benefits related to stock option exercises. The excess tax benefits related to stock option exercises realized were $10.1 million and $1.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2017 and March 31, 2016, respectively. Excluding the excess tax benefits, the effective rates were 38.2% for both periods. Other differences from our federal statutory income tax rate included state income taxes, non-deductible business expenses, and the tax benefit of the domestic production activities deduction.

We made tax payments of $161,000 and $71,000 in the three months ended March 31, 2017 and March 31, 2016, respectively.