Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

INCOME TAXES

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INCOME TAXES
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2014
Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract]  
INCOME TAXES
INCOME TAXES
The Company calculates interim effective tax rates in accordance with the FASB guidance for income taxes and applies the estimated annual effective tax rate to year-to-date pretax income (loss) at the end of each interim period to compute a year-to-date tax expense (or benefit). This guidance requires departure from effective tax rate computations when losses incurred within tax jurisdictions cannot be carried back and future profits associated with operations in those tax jurisdictions cannot be assured beyond any reasonable doubt. Accordingly, the Company has calculated and applied an expected annual effective tax rate of approximately 20% for 2014 (as compared to 18% in the prior year), excluding significant, unusual or extraordinary items, for ordinary income associated with operations for which the Company currently expects to have annual taxable income, which are principally outside of the United States. The Company has not recorded tax benefits associated with losses from operations for which future taxable income cannot be reasonably assured. As required by this guidance, the Company also includes tax effects of significant, unusual or extraordinary items in income tax expense (benefit) in the interim period in which they occur.
Net income tax benefit is $2.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014. The components of tax expense (benefit) that contributed to this net income tax benefit primarily consist of discrete deferred tax benefits of $6.5 million attributable to the release of valuation allowances primarily due to deferred tax liabilities associated with the March 2014 acquisition of an artist management business located in California. This benefit was partially offset by income tax expense of $3.3 million based on the expected annual rate pertaining to taxable ordinary income for the three-month period.
Historically, the Company has reinvested all foreign earnings in its continuing foreign operations. The Company currently believes all undistributed foreign earnings that are not currently subject to United States federal income tax will be indefinitely reinvested in its foreign operations.
The tax years 2005 through 2013 remain open to examination by the major tax jurisdictions to which the Company is subject.