15. Income Taxes:

The composition of deferred tax assets and liabilities and the related tax effects as of December 31, 2015 and 2014, are as follows (in thousands):

 

 

 

We concluded that no valuation allowance was necessary to provide against our deferred tax assets as of December 31, 2015.

 

A reconciliation of the income tax provisions based on the statutory tax rate to the provision reflected in the consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013, is as follows (in thousands):

 

 

 

 

We have available, for federal income tax purposes, unused net operating loss of $1.2 million at December 31, 2015. The losses were acquired as part of the HIC and HCM acquisitions and may be used to offset future taxable income. Utilization of the losses is limited under Internal Revenue Code Section 382. The Internal Revenue Code provides that effective with tax years beginning September 1997, the carry-back and carry-forward periods are 2 years and 20 years, respectively, with respect to newly generated operating losses. The net operating losses will expire if unused, as follows (in thousands):

 

 

 

We are no longer subject to U.S. federal, state, local or non-U.S. income tax examinations by tax authorities for years prior to 2012. The Company recognizes interest and penalties related to uncertain tax positions in income tax expense. There were no uncertain tax positions at December 31, 2015.