Note 14 - Income Taxes

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Tax Disclosure [Text Block]

14.    Income Taxes

We file income tax returns in the United States federal jurisdiction, as well as in various states and foreign jurisdictions. With few exceptions, we are no longer subject to United States federal, state, and local, or non-United States income tax examinations by tax authorities for years before 2010. Our practice is to recognize interest and penalties related to income tax matters in income tax expense when and if they become applicable. As of December 31, 2013 and 2012, there were no accrued interest and penalties related to uncertain tax positions.

The components of the benefit from income taxes are as follows (in thousands):

	Years ended December 31,
	2013		2012		2011
Current
Federal	$	-	$	-	$	-
Foreign		-		-		12
State		-		-		2
		-		-		14
Deferred
Federal		-		-		-
Foreign		-		-		(12	)
State		-		-		-
		-		-		(12	)
Benefit from income taxes	$	-	$	-	$	2

The following table shows the geographic components of pretax loss from continuing operations between United States and foreign subsidiaries (in thousands):

	December 31,
	2013			2012			2011
United States	$	(6,774	)	$	(6,338	)	$	(5,668	)
Foreign subsidiaries		(173	)		(238	)		(305	)
Loss before income taxes	$	(6,947	)	$	(6,576	)	$	(5,973	)

The principal items accounting for the difference between income taxes computed at the United States statutory rate and the benefit from income taxes reflected in the statements of operations are as follows:

	Years ended December 31,
	2013			2012			2011
United States statutory rate		34.0%			34.0%			34.0%
State taxes (net of federal tax benefit)		1.3%			1.8%			2.7%
Valuation allowance		(19.6%	)		(27.8%	)		(34.4%	)
Other		(15.7%	)		(8.0%	)		(2.3%	)
		0.0%			0.0%			0.0%

The tax effects of temporary differences that give rise to significant portions of the deferred tax assets are as follows (in thousands):

	December 31,
	2013			2012			2011
Allowance for doubtful accounts	$	15		$	53		$	60
Accrued expenses and other reserves		2,048			2,197			2,264
Tax credits, deferred R&D, and other		748			907			656
Net operating loss		5,535			25,980			24,931
Valuation allowance		(8,344	)		(29,135	)		(27,909	)
Net total deferred taxes	$	2		$	2		$	2

Since we believe that it is more likely than not that the benefit from net operating loss carry-forwards will not be realized, we have provided a full valuation allowance against our United States deferred tax assets. The net deferred tax assets for 2013 amounted to $2 thousand and were for our United Kingdom subsidiary, which has been profitable in prior years. We had no net deferred tax liabilities at December 31, 2013 and at December 31, 2012. There were no federal tax expenses for the United States operations in 2013, as any expected benefits were offset by an increase in the valuation allowance.

As of December 31, 2013, we had net operating loss carry-forwards of approximately $72.1 million for federal, state and local income tax purposes. However, due to changes in our capital structure, approximately $14.5 million of this amount is available after the application of Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 382 limitations, as discussed below. If not utilized, these carry-forwards will begin to expire in 2021 for federal and have begun to expire for state and local purposes.

The IRC imposes restrictions on the utilization of various carry-forward tax attributes in the event of a change in ownership, as defined by IRC Section 382. During 2013, we completed an IRC Section 382 review and the results of this review indicate ownership changes have occurred which would cause a limitation on the utilization of carry-forward attributes. Our gross capital loss carry-forwards, net operating loss carry-forwards and research and development credits are all subject to limitation. Under these tax provisions, the limitation is applied first to any capital losses, then to any net operating losses and then to any general business credits. The Section 382 limitation is currently estimated to result in the expiration of $57.6 million of net operating loss carry-forwards and $299 thousand of research and development credits. A valuation allowance has been established to reserve for the potential benefits of the capital loss carry-forwards and the remaining net operating loss carry-forwards in the consolidated financial statements to reflect the uncertainty of future taxable income required to utilize available tax loss carry-forwards.