Note 12 - Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Oct. 01, 2023

Notes to Financial Statements

Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]

(12) Income Taxes

The provision for income taxes includes federal, state, local and foreign taxes. The Company’s effective tax rate varies from period to period due to the proportion of foreign and domestic pre-tax income expected to be generated by the Company. The Company provides for income taxes for its domestic operations at a statutory rate of 21% in 2023 and 2022 and for its foreign operations at a statutory rate of 30% in 2023 and 2022. Reconciling items between the federal statutory rate and the effective tax rate also include the expected usage of federal net operating loss carryforwards, state income taxes, valuation allowances and certain other permanent differences.

The Company recognizes liabilities or assets for the deferred tax consequences of temporary differences between the tax bases of assets or liabilities and their reported amounts in the financial statements in accordance with ASC 740, Income Taxes (ASC 740). These temporary differences will result in taxable or deductible amounts in future years when the reported amounts of assets or liabilities are recovered or settled. ASC 740 requires that a valuation allowance be established when it is more likely than not that all or a portion of a deferred tax asset will not be realized. The Company evaluates its deferred tax position on a quarterly basis and valuation allowances are provided as necessary. During this evaluation, the Company reviews its forecast of income in conjunction with other positive and negative evidence surrounding the realizability of its deferred tax assets to determine if a valuation allowance is needed.

Based on the Company’s consideration of all positive and negative evidence, including future reversals of existing taxable temporary differences, projected future taxable income, tax-planning strategies, and results of recent operations, the Company has established a valuation allowance against all U.S. deferred tax assets. Until an appropriate level and characterization of profitability is attained, the Company expects to continue to maintain a valuation allowance on its net deferred tax assets related to future U.S. tax benefits.

The Company files income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction, and various state and foreign jurisdictions. To the Company’s knowledge, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is not currently examining the Company’s U.S. income tax returns for 2019 through 2021, for which the statute has yet to expire. During the first quarter of 2023, the Company’s wholly-owned subsidiary in Mexico received a formal tax assessment notice from Mexico’s Federal Tax Administration Service, Servicio de Administracion Tributaria’s (the “SAT”) pertaining to revenue variances and disallowed deductions related to an audit by the SAT of the 2016 tax year. The tax liability for the variances is $20,922,000 Mexican pesos, which includes annual adjustments for inflation, interest and penalties and equals approximately $1,150,000 USD at February 23, 2023. The Mexican subsidiary believes the variances can be substantially eliminated and filed an administrative appeal with the SAT in April 2023 and will further pursue all available legal actions in response to this assessment. No amounts have been accrued, as the Company does not believe a loss is probable. In addition, open tax years related to state and foreign jurisdictions remain subject to examination.