NOTE

– Income Tax Expense

Aggregate income tax provisions consist of the following (in thousands):

	Years Ended December 31,
	2019			2018			2017
Current:
Federal	$	3,049		$	3,613		$	2,846
Tax Cut and Jobs Act		-			-			265
State and local		1,074			643			647
Foreign		502			789			338
		4,625			5,045			4,096
Long-Term:
Tax Cut and Jobs Act		-			-			1,336

Deferred Taxes:
Deferred tax (benefit) provision		(1,405	)		(625	)		1,899
Tax Cut and Jobs Act re-measurement		-			-			2,429
		(1,405	)		(625	)		4,328

Income tax expense	$	3,220		$	4,420		$	9,760

The significant components of the deferred income tax (liability) asset are as follows (in thousands):

	December 31,
	2019			2018
Deferred income tax assets:
Pension accruals	$	2,588		$	2,729
Operating reserves and other accruals		2,540			1,984
Tax credits		923			748
Valuation allowance on tax credits		(923	)		(748	)
Deferred income tax liabilities:
Book carrying value in excess of tax basis of property		(1,544	)		(1,495	)
Book carrying value in excess of tax basis of intangibles		(7,024	)		(6,906	)
Tax effect of revenue recognition standard ASC 606		(1,771	)		(2,657	)
Deferred expenses		(1,831	)		(2,130	)
Net deferred income tax liability	$	(7,042	)	$	(8,475	)

The difference between the total statutory Federal income tax rate and the actual effective income tax rate is accounted for as follows:

	Years Ended December 31,
	2019			2018			2017
Statutory Federal income tax rate		21.0	%		21.0	%		34.0	%
State and local income taxes, net of Federal income tax benefit		4.8	%		2.0	%		1.5	%
Rate impacts due to foreign operations		(3.9	%)		(2.7	%)		(5.1	%)
Changes in uncertain tax positions		1.7	%		0.4	%		-
Compensation related		(0.2	%)		1.4	%		(6.1	%)
R&D tax credits		(0.9	%)		(0.4	%)		(0.5	%)
Other		(1.4	%)		(1.0	%)		(0.1	%)
Impact of the Tax Act		-			-			15.7	%
Effective income tax rate		21.1	%		20.7	%		39.4	%

December 22, 2017,

the U.S. enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“Tax Act”) that instituted fundamental changes to the U.S. tax system. The Tax Act includes changes to the taxation of foreign earnings by implementing a dividend exemption system, expansion of the current anti-deferral rules, a minimum tax on low-taxed foreign earnings and new measures to deter base erosion. The Tax Act also permanently reduced the corporate tax rate from

34%

21%,

imposed a

one

-time mandatory transition tax on the historical earnings of foreign affiliates and implemented a territorial style tax system. In

2017,

income tax expense of

$9.8

million was unfavorably impacted by net discrete adjustments of

$4.0

million, due to a charge of

$3.3

million related to the enactment of the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (the “Tax Act”) in the United States and

$0.7

million related to other miscellaneous discrete items.

Effective

January 1, 2018,

the Tax Act established a corporate income tax rate of

21%,

replacing the current

34%

rate, and creating a territorial tax system rather than a worldwide system, which generally eliminates the U.S. federal income tax on dividends from foreign subsidiaries. The transition to the territorial system included a

one

-time transition tax in

2017

on certain of our foreign earnings previously untaxed in the United States. In general, the

one

-time transition tax imposed by the Tax Act resulted in the taxation of our accumulated foreign earnings and profits (“E&P”) at a

15.5%

rate on liquid assets and

on the remaining unremitted foreign E&P, both net of foreign tax credits. In addition, the Company

longer intends to permanently reinvest its historical foreign earnings and has recorded an additional deferred tax expense of

$0.9

million.

Effective

January 1, 2018,

The Tax Act imposed a U.S. tax on global intangible low taxed income (“GILTI”) that is earned by certain foreign affiliates owned by a U.S. shareholder. The computation of GILTI is generally intended to impose tax on the earnings of a foreign corporation that are deemed to exceed a certain threshold return relative to the underlying business investment. In accordance with guidance issued by FASB, the Company made a policy election to treat future taxes related to GILTI as a current period expense in the reporting period in which the tax is incurred.

Only tax positions that meet the more-likely-than-

not

recognition threshold are recognized in the financial statements. As of

December 31, 2019

and

2018

, we have

$0.9

million and

$0.6

million, respectively, of unrecognized tax benefits, all of which, if recognized, would favorably affect the annual effective income tax rate. We do

not

expect any significant amount of this liability to be paid in the next

twelve

months. Accordingly, the balance of

$0.9

million as of

December 31, 2019

is included in other long-term liabilities.

Changes in the Company’s gross liability for unrecognized tax benefits, excluding interest and penalties, were as follows (in thousands):

	December 31,
	2019			2018
Balance at the beginning of year	$	477		$	400
Additions based on tax positions related to the current year		128			56
Additions for tax positions of prior years		173			85
Reductions due to lapse of statute of limitations		(97	)		(64	)
Balance at the end of year	$	681		$	477

We recognize interest and penalties accrued related to unrecognized tax benefits in the provision for income taxes. During the years ended

December 31,

2019

2018

and

2017

, we recorded

$0.2

million,

$0.1

million and

$0.1

million, respectively, for interest and penalties, net of tax benefits. During each of the years

2019

2018

and

2017

, we reduced the liability by

$0.1

million for interest and penalties due to lapse of statute of limitations. At

December 31, 2019

and

2018

, we had

$0.2

million and

$0.1

million, respectively, accrued for interest and penalties, net of tax benefit.

We anticipate that it is reasonably possible that the total amount of unrecognized tax benefits could decrease by approximately

$0.1

million within the next

twelve

months due to the closure of tax years by expiration of the statute of limitations and audit settlements related to various state tax filing positions. The earliest year open to federal examinations is

2016

and significant state examinations is

2013.