Taxes

For the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015, we recognized a provision for income taxes of $1 million and a benefit from income taxes of $10 million, respectively. The following is a reconciliation of the statutory federal and state tax rates to our effective tax rate at September 30, 2016 and 2015.

Table 21.1 – Reconciliation of Statutory Tax Rate to Effective Tax Rate



	September 30, 2016		September 30, 2015
Federal statutory rate	34.0	%	34.0	%
State statutory rate, net of Federal tax effect	7.2	%	7.2	%
Differences in taxable (loss) income from GAAP income	(21.7	)%	(36.5	)%
Change in valuation allowance	6.6	%	20.9	%
Dividends paid deduction	(24.9	)%	(45.8	)%
Effective Tax Rate	1.2	%	(20.2	)%

We assessed our tax positions for all open tax years (i.e., Federal, 2013 to 2016, and State, 2012- 2016) at September 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015, and concluded that we had no uncertain tax positions that resulted in material unrecognized tax benefits.