Income Taxes

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2021

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

Laureate's income tax provisions for all periods consist of federal, state and foreign income taxes. The tax provisions for the six months ended June 30, 2021 and 2020 are based on estimated full-year effective tax rates, adjusted for discrete income tax items related specifically to the interim periods. Laureate has operations in multiple countries at various statutory tax rates and other operations that are loss-making entities for which it is not more likely than not that a tax benefit will be realized on the loss.

For the six months ended June 30, 2021, the Company recognized income tax (expense) from continuing operations of $(126,045), as compared to income tax benefit from continuing operations of $221,315 in the prior year period. Income tax expense for the six months ended June 30, 2021 was primarily driven by changes in income tax reserves, withholding taxes and jurisdictional mix of earnings offset by the benefit for pretax loss for the period. Income tax benefit for the six months ended June 30, 2020 was primarily driven by the benefit recorded due to the change in tax status of a Netherlands subsidiary, the pretax loss for the period and jurisdictional mix of earnings.

During the first quarter of 2021, the Company recorded an out-of-period adjustment of approximately $12,400 for income tax expense that should have been recorded during 2016 through 2020. The Company concluded that the adjustment was immaterial to the consolidated financial statements for both the current and prior-periods.