12. Income Taxes

The provision for income tax expense (benefit) consists of the following:

A reconciliation of the statutory federal income tax rate to the Company’s effective income tax rate is as follows:

Deferred income taxes reflect the impact of “temporary differences” between asset and liability amounts for financial reporting purposes and such amounts as determined based on existing tax laws. The tax effect of temporary differences and carryforwards which give rise to deferred tax assets and liabilities are as follows:

The Company’s state tax net operating losses of $80.1 million expire at various times between 2012 and 2032, and foreign losses of $3.5 million, which do not expire. The Company has federal income tax credits of $0.7 million which expire between 2022 and 2032. The Company also has state income tax credits of $3.4 million. $1.2 million of these credits expire at various times beginning in 2012 through 2029. Credits of $2.2 million do not expire. In evaluating the Company’s ability to recover its deferred tax assets, the Company considers all available positive and negative evidence including past operating results, future taxable income, and ongoing prudent and feasible tax planning strategies in assessing the need for a valuation allowance against any deferred tax assets. The Company has determined there will be insufficient future separate state and international taxable income for the separate parent company and the Company’s foreign operations to realize its deferred tax assets. Therefore, valuation allowances of $7.3 million and $7.5 million (net of federal impact) at September 29, 2012 and September 24, 2011, respectively, have been provided to reduce state and foreign deferred tax assets to amounts considered recoverable.

The Company classifies uncertain tax positions as non-current income tax liabilities unless expected to be paid within one year. The Company recognizes interest and/or penalties related to income tax matters as a component of pretax income. As of September 29, 2012 and September 24, 2011 accrued interest was less than $0.1 million and no penalties were accrued related to uncertain tax positions.

The following table, which excludes interest and penalties, summarizes the activity related to the Company’s unrecognized tax benefits for fiscal years ended September 24, 2011 and September 29, 2012 (in thousands):

As of September 29, 2012, unrecognized income tax benefits totaled approximately $0.2 million and all of the unrecognized tax benefits would, if recognized, impact the Company’s effective income tax rate.

The Company is principally subject to taxation by the United States and various states within the United States. The Company’s tax filings in major jurisdictions are open to examination by tax authorities by the Internal Revenue Service from fiscal year ended 2009 forward and in various state taxing authorities generally from fiscal year ended 2008 forward.

The Company does not believe there will be any significant change in its unrecognized tax benefits within the next twelve months.