Income Taxes

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

On March 27, 2020, the President of the United States signed into law the CARES Act, which focused on providing relief in response to the adverse economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other provisions, the CARES Act provides various forms of income tax relief to U.S. taxpayers through temporary amendments to net operating loss (“NOLs”) rules, temporarily increases the limitation on interest expense deductibility and immediate expensing for eligible qualified

improvement property. We are currently evaluating the provisions of the CARES Act. As of March 31, 2020, although we do not expect these provisions to have a significant impact on our effective tax rate, we are estimating an income tax refund between approximately $40 million and $50 million primarily attributable to the carryback of NOLs.

The Company calculates the provision for income taxes during interim reporting periods by applying an estimate of the annual effective tax rate to its year-to-date pretax book income or loss. The tax effects of discrete items, including but not limited to, excess tax benefits associated with stock-based compensation, valuation allowance adjustments based on new evidence and enactment of tax laws, are reported in the interim period in which they occur. The effective tax rate (income taxes as a percentage of income or loss before income taxes) including discrete items was 14.1% for the three months ended March 31, 2020, as compared to 26.5% for the three months ended March 31, 2019. Our effective income tax rate can vary from period to period depending on, among other factors, the geographic and business mix of our earnings, changes to our valuation allowance and the level of our tax credits. Certain of these and other factors, including our history and projections of pretax earnings, are considered in assessing our ability to realize our net deferred tax assets.

As of each reporting date, the Company considers all available positive and negative evidence that could affect its view of the future realization of deferred tax assets pursuant to ASC Topic 740, “Income Taxes.” As of December 31, 2019, the Company had significant three-year cumulative pretax income of $150.9 million and concluded that a valuation allowance was not necessary except for a federal capital loss carryforward and certain state deferred tax assets where we continue to be in a three-year cumulative pretax loss position. The Company’s valuation allowance as of December 31, 2019 was $54.2 million.

During the three months ended March 31, 2020, the Company reassessed the need for a valuation allowance due to the impairment charges of $616.1 million recorded related to the COVID-19 pandemic that caused the Company to have a three-year cumulative pretax loss of $564.2 million. Such objective evidence limits our ability to consider other subjective evidence such as our forecast of pretax earnings. As a result of this objective negative evidence, the Company recorded an increase of $74.4 million to its valuation allowance on certain federal and state deferred tax assets that are not more likely than not to be realized.

On March 27, 2020, we entered into the Term Sheet with GLPI whereby GLPI agreed to (i) purchase the real estate assets associated with our Tropicana property, which closed on April 16, 2020, and (ii) purchase the land underlying our Morgantown development project subject to regulatory approval, which we expect to close by August 31, 2020. These transactions will be treated as a sale of business assets for tax purposes. We will assess the amount of gain or loss in the interim period when the transactions close, which may impact our estimated 2020 net operating loss.