| INCOME TAXES | NOTE 8 - INCOME TAXES The benefit effective tax rate of (23.1%) differs from the post U.S. Tax Reform blended statutory rate of 23.4% in the three month period ended January 28, 2018, primarily due to the benefit from U.S. Tax Reform (as discussed below), earnings being taxed at lower statutory rates in foreign jurisdictions, and the benefit of various investment credits in a foreign jurisdiction. On December 22, 2017, the U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”), was signed into law, enacting significant changes to the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, that we expect to have a positive impact on our future after-tax earnings. Under ASC Topic 740 – “Income Taxes” (“ASC 740”), the effects of the new legislation are recognized in the interim and annual accounting periods that include the enactment date, which falls within our interim period ended January 28, 2018. In December 2017, the Securities and Exchange Commission released Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 118 (“SAB 118”) to address situations in which the accounting under ASC 740 is incomplete for certain income tax effects of the Act. We adopted SAB 118 in our first quarter of fiscal year 2018. SAB 118 summarizes a three-step process to be applied at each reporting period to account for and qualitatively disclose; (1) the effects of the change in tax law for which accounting is complete; (2) provisional amounts (or adjustments to provisional amounts) for the effects of the tax law for where accounting is not complete, but that a reasonable estimate has been determined; and (3) a reasonable estimate cannot yet be made and therefore taxes are reflected in accordance with law prior to the enactment of the Act. We continue to analyze the provisions of the Act addressing the net deferred tax asset revaluation and its calculations, the deemed earnings repatriation, including the determination of undistributed non-U.S. earnings, and evaluate potential actions we may consider in light of the Act that could affect our fiscal year of 2018 U.S. taxable income. As such, our accounting for certain elements within the Act is preliminary, and subject to further clarification of the Act by Internal Revenue Service. The following is a discussion of the major provisions of the Act that affect our financial statements, and our preliminary assessment of the impact of such provisions on the statements. · The Act repeals the corporate alternative minimum tax (“AMT”) for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, and provides that existing AMT credit carryforwards are fully refundable over a four year period, starting with the tax year beginning after December 31, 2017. We have approximately $3.9 million of AMT credit carryforwards that we previously determined were not more likely than not going to be realized and, as such, established a valuation allowance for these carryforwards. Accordingly, the Act has changed our determination regarding the realization of the benefit of the carryforwards; therefore, the related valuation allowance has been reversed and the $3.9 million tax benefit has been recorded in our tax provision, excluding any impact of potential future sequestration reductions. · As of January 1, 2018, the Act reduces the corporate income tax rate from a maximum 35% to a flat 21%. Our fiscal year 2018 blended statutory tax rate is approximately 23.4%, the weighted daily average rate between the pre-enactment U.S. federal statutory tax rate of 35% applicable to our 2018 fiscal year prior to the rate change effective January 1, 2018 and the post-enactment U.S. federal statutory tax rate of 21% applicable to the balance of our 2018 fiscal year. The 21% rate will be applicable to fiscal year 2019 and beyond. Under generally accepted accounting principles, we are required to revalue our deferred tax assets and liabilities utilizing the rate applicable to the period when a temporary difference will reverse. Our preliminary analysis of the two stepped revaluation indicates that our net deferred tax asset will be increased by $2.5 million, with an offsetting change in the related valuation allowance resulting in a provisional net zero impact for our period. · The Act imposes a transition tax for a one-time deemed repatriation of the accumulated earnings of foreign subsidiaries. The transition tax effective rates are 15.5% on accumulated earnings held in cash (as defined by the Act), and 8% on any remaining balance. Our preliminary analysis indicates an estimated deemed repatriation transition tax of $28.4 million. The preliminary analysis also indicates that the entire amount of transition tax will be fully offset by tax credits and/or available loss carryforwards, resulting in a provisional net zero impact on our period, due in part to an offsetting change in the related valuation allowance. We do not expect that future earnings of foreign subsidiaries will be subject to U.S. federal income tax. No change has been or is anticipated to be made with respect to the year-end fiscal year 2017 indefinite reinvestment assertion of foreign subsidiary earnings. · Our preliminary analysis of other provisions of the Act, including, but not limited to, 100 percent bonus depreciation and changes to the limitations on the deducibility of meals and entertainment expenses indicate that under our current tax profile there should be limited or no provisional impact for our period. · Based on the effective date of certain provisions, we will be subject to additional requirements of tax reform beginning in fiscal year 2019. Those provisions include a tax on global intangible low-taxed income (GILTI), a tax determined by base erosion tax benefits (BEAT) from certain payments between a U.S. corporation and foreign subsidiaries, a limitation of certain executive compensation, a deduction for foreign derived intangible income (FDII) and interest expense limitations. We have not completed our analysis of those provisions and the estimated impact. On January 18, 2018, the Taiwan Legislature Yuan approved amendments to the Income Tax Act, enacting an increase in the corporate tax rate from 17% to 20%. Under generally accepted accounting principles, we are required to revalue our deferred tax assets and liabilities utilizing the rate applicable to the period when a temporary difference will reverse. Our analysis indicates that our Taiwan deferred tax asset will be increased and, accordingly, a net benefit of $0.2 million is reflected in our period tax provision. The 19.0% effective tax rate differs from the U.S. statutory rate of 35% in the three month period ended January 29, 2017, primarily due to earnings being taxed at lower statutory rates in foreign jurisdictions, combined with the benefit of various investment credits in a foreign jurisdiction. Valuation allowances in jurisdictions with historic losses eliminate the tax benefit of these jurisdictions. Two five-year tax holidays in Taiwan, one that expired in 2017 and the other that expires in 2019, reduced foreign taxes by $0.1 million in the three month periods ended January 28, 2018 and January 29, 2017, respectively. These tax holidays had no effect on the earnings per share of either period. There were unrecognized tax benefits related to uncertain tax positions of $3.7 million at January 28, 2018, and $3.4 million at October 29, 2017, all of which, if recognized, would favorably impact the Company’s effective tax rate. Accrued interest and penalties related to unrecognized tax benefits was $0.1 million at January 28, 2018 and October 29, 2017. Although the timing of the expirations of statutes of limitations may be uncertain, as they can be dependent upon the settlement of tax audits, we believe that it is reasonably possible that up to $1.4 million of our uncertain tax positions (including accrued interest and penalties, and net of tax benefits) may be resolved over the next twelve months. Resolution of these uncertain tax positions may result from either or both of the lapses of statutes of limitations and tax settlements. |
