Income Taxes

9 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2022

Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]

Income Taxes

Income Taxes

Income tax expense was $3.8 million and $10.1 million during the three and nine months ended June 30, 2022, respectively, compared to $4.0 million and $5.5 million during the three and nine months ended June 30, 2021, respectively. The effective income tax expense rate was 21.3% and 22.1% for the three and nine months ended June 30, 2022, respectively, compared to 24.4% and 16.6% for the three and nine months ended June 30, 2021, respectively. Our effective income tax rate is affected by state taxes, permanent differences, and tax credits, including the FICA tip credit, for both years, and the change in the deferred tax asset valuation allowance and the impact of the forgiveness of the PPP loans in the prior period, as presented below.

	For the Three Months Ended June 30,				For the Nine Months Ended June 30,
	2022		2021		2022		2021
Federal statutory income tax expense	21.0	%	21.0	%	21.0	%	21.0	%
State income taxes, net of federal benefit	2.9	%	4.8	%	2.9	%	4.9	%
Permanent differences	0.4	%	(0.1)	%	0.4	%	(3.7)	%
Change in valuation allowance	—	%	—	%	—	%	(3.8)	%
Tax credits	(3.2)	%	(1.2)	%	(2.8)	%	(1.8)	%
Other	0.1	%	—	%	0.5	%	—	%
Total income tax expense	21.3	%	24.4	%	22.1	%	16.6	%

The Company or one of its subsidiaries files income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction, and various states. Fiscal year ended September 30, 2019 and subsequent years remain open to federal tax examination. The Company ordinarily goes through various federal and state reviews and examinations for various tax matters.

On March 27, 2020, former President Trump signed the CARES Act into law. As a result of this, additional avenues of relief became available to workers and families through enhanced unemployment insurance provisions and to small businesses through programs administered by the Small Business Administration. The CARES Act included, among other

items, provisions relating to payroll tax credits and deferrals, net operating loss carryback periods, alternative minimum tax credits and technical corrections to tax depreciation methods for qualified improvement property. The CARES Act also established a Paycheck Protection Program, whereby certain small businesses were eligible for a loan to fund payroll expenses, rent, and related costs. The loan may be forgiven if the funds are used for payroll and other qualified expenses. The Company submitted its application for a PPP loan and on May 8, 2020 received approval and funding for its restaurants, shared service entity and lounge. Ten of our restaurant subsidiaries received amounts ranging from $271,000 to $579,000 for an aggregate amount of $4.2 million; our shared-services subsidiary received $1.1 million; and one of our lounges received $124,000. None of our adult nightclub and other non-core business subsidiaries received funding under the PPP. The Company believes it has used the entire loan amount for qualifying expenses. Under the terms of the PPP, certain amounts of the loan may be forgiven if they are used for qualifying expenses as described in the CARES Act. The Company utilized all of the PPP funds and submitted its forgiveness applications. During fiscal 2021, we received 11 Notices of PPP Forgiveness Payment from the Small Business Administration out of the 12 of our PPP loans granted. All of the notices received forgave 100% of each of the 11 PPP loans totaling the amount of $5.3 million in principal and interest and were included in non-operating gains (losses), net in our consolidated statement of operations for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2021. In November 2021, we received a partial forgiveness of the remaining $124,000 PPP loan for $85,000 in principal and interest. The remaining unforgiven portion of approximately $41,000 in principal has been repaid as debt plus accrued interest.