The 2018 Credit Agreement contains customary affirmative and negative covenants and events of default, including covenants (1) restricting us from making certain investments, loans, advances and acquisitions (but permitting us to make investments in subsidiaries of up to $10.0 million); (2) restricting us from making certain payments, including (a) cash dividends, except that we may pay cash dividends as long as immediately before and after giving effect to such payment, the sum of the unused amount of the commitments under the 2018 Credit Agreement plus our cash on hand is not less than $10.0 million, and as long as we are not in default before and after giving effect to such dividend payments and (b) payments made to repurchase shares of our common stock, except that we may repurchase shares of our common stock as long as we are not in default before and after giving effect to such repurchases and the aggregate amount of payments made by us for all such repurchases during any fiscal year does not exceed $10.0 million; (3) requiring that we maintain a minimum working capital of $125.0 million; (4) requiring that we maintain a minimum tangible net worth of $170.0 million; and (5) providing that if the total amount of indebtedness outstanding owed by the Company and its Taiwanese and Chinese subsidiaries to the lender or its affiliates (the “Specified Outstanding Amount”) exceeds $25.0 million, then the Company will not permit the amount of unrestricted cash-on-hand of the Company and its subsidiaries to be less than the Specified Outstanding Amount. We may use the proceeds from advances under the 2018 Credit Agreement for general corporate purposes.
In March 2019, our wholly-owned subsidiaries in Taiwan (Hurco Manufacturing Limited (“HML”)) and China (Ningbo Hurco Machine Tool, Ltd (“NHML”)) closed on uncommitted revolving credit facilities with maximum aggregate amounts of 150 million New Taiwan Dollars (the "Taiwan credit facility") and 32.5 million Chinese Yuan (the "China credit facility"), respectively. As uncommitted facilities, both the Taiwan and China credit facilities are subject to review and termination by the respective underlying lending institutions from time to time.
As a result, as of April 30, 2021, our existing credit facilities consisted of our €1.5 million revolving credit facility in Germany, the 150 million New Taiwan Dollars Taiwan credit facility, the 32.5 million Chinese Yuan China credit facility and the $40.0 million revolving credit facility under the 2018 Credit Agreement.
As of April 30, 2021, there were 0 borrowings under any of our credit facilities and there was approximately $52.2 million of available borrowing capacity thereunder.
12. INCOME TAXES
Our provision for income taxes and effective tax rate are affected by the geographical composition of pre-tax income which includes jurisdictions with differing tax rates, conditional reduced tax rates, and other events that are not consistent from period to period, such as changes in income tax laws.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”) was signed into law on March 27, 2020. The CARES Act included several provisions that provide economic relief for individuals and businesses. The CARES Act, among other things, included tax provisions relating to refundable payroll tax credits, the deferral of employer’s social security payments, and modifications to net operating loss carryback provisions. On December 27, 2020, the Consolidated
Appropriations Act of 2021 (the “CAA”), which includes the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act
and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, was signed into law and provided further COVID-19 economic relief with an expansion of
the employee retention credit. As a result, we recorded a benefit of $1.9 million related to the employee retention credit during the
second quarter of fiscal 2021.
During the second quarter of fiscal 2021, we assessed and recorded the estimated year to date impact of recent changes in income tax laws to address the unfavorable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act included economic relief and modifications, most notably the net operating loss carryback provisions for the U.S. We recorded an income tax expense during the six months of fiscal 2021 of $1.5 million compared to an income tax benefit of $1.4 million for the same period in 2020. Our effective tax rate for the first six months of fiscal 2021 was 33%, compared to 22% in the corresponding prior year period. The year-over-year increase in the effective tax rate was primarily due to changes in geographic mix of income and loss which includes jurisdictions with differing tax rates, conditional reduced tax rates, and other events that are not consistent from period to period, such as changes in income tax laws to address the unfavorable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and a discrete income tax expense related to unvested stock awards in fiscal 2021.
Our unrecognized tax benefits were $211,000 as of April 30, 2021 and $204,000 as of October 31, 2020, and in each case included accrued interest.