Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements 59
The income tax provision attributable to income from continuing operations before
income taxes is as follows:
Year Ended December 31 (In thousands) 2004 2003 2002
Current—federal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 200,419 $ 68,760 $ 50,352
Deferred—federal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (9,155) 40,142 111,981
Provision for federal income taxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191,264 108,902 162,333
Current—state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,851 5,167 6,169
Deferred—state . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,420 (682) (51)
Provision for state income taxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,271 4,485 6,118
Current—foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424 — —
Deferred—foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . — — —
Provision for foreign income taxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424 ——
$ 205,959 $113,387 $ 168,451
Reconciliation of the federal income tax statutory rate and the Company’s effective
tax rate is as follows:
Year Ended December 31 2004 2003 2002
Federal income tax statutory rate  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.0% 35.0% 35.0%
State income tax (net of federal benefit)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.7 0.8 0.9
Reversal of reserves for prior tax years  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1.0) (3.9) —
Permanent and other items  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 1.1 0.9
37.1% 33.0% 36.8%
The major tax effected components of the Company’s net deferred tax liability are
as follows:
At December 31 (In thousands) 2004 2003
Deferred tax assets—federal and state
Bad debt reserve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 25,168 $ 34,502
Deferred compensation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25,131 21,170
Net operating loss carryforward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,569 9,929
Preopening and start-up costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,305 7,085
Accruals, reserves and other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35,162 39,280
98,335 111,966
Less: Valuation allowance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (5,608) (9,682)
92,727 102,284
Deferred tax liabilities—federal and state
Property and equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (1,708,753) (1,680,121)
Investments in unconsolidated affiliates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (130,056) (116,587)
Unremitted earnings of foreign subsidiary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (11,150) —
Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (15,848) (21,862)
(1,865,807) (1,818,570)
Deferred taxes—foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . — 146
Net deferred tax liability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ (1,773,080) $ (1,716,140)
For U.S. federal income tax return purposes, the Company has a net operating loss
carryforward of $4 million, which will begin to expire in 2009. For state income tax
purposes, the Company has a New Jersey net operating loss carryforward of $122
million, which equates to a deferred tax asset of $7 million, after federal tax effect,
and before valuation allowance. The New Jersey net operating loss carryforwards
begin to expire in 2005.