Income Taxes

We believe that our recorded assets and liabilities are reasonable. However, tax laws and regulations are subject to interpretation and tax litigation is inherently uncertain, and therefore our assessments can involve a series of complex judgments about future events and rely heavily on estimates and assumptions.

The effective tax rates for the three-month periods ended March 31, 2016 and 2015 were a 25.0% benefit and a 2.0% expense, respectively. The variance was primarily attributable to the earnings mix between our higher and lower tax rate jurisdictions. Due to the continuing uncertainty in our industry and thus our outlook, we have adopted the method of recording income taxes on a year to date effective tax rate method for the three-month period ended March 31, 2016. We will re-evaluate our use of this method each quarter until such time a return to the annualized effective tax rate method is deemed appropriate.

Income taxes are provided based on the U.S. statutory rate of 35% and at the local statutory rate for each foreign jurisdiction adjusted for items that are allowed as deductions for federal and foreign income tax reporting purposes, but not for book purposes. The primary differences between the U.S. statutory rate and our effective rate are as follows:



	Three Months Ended March 31,
	2016		2015

U.S. statutory rate	35.0	%	35.0	%
Foreign provision	(9.8	)	(34.1	)
Other	(0.2	)	1.1
Effective rate	25.0	%	2.0	%