10. Income Tax

The components of income before income tax provision (benefit) were as follows:

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Income tax provision (benefit) was as follows:

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A reconciliation of the statutory U.S. income tax rate to the effective income tax rate was as follows:

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Income Tax Provision (Benefit)

The Company’s effective tax rate for the year ended December 31, 2023 was higher than the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate primarily due to the impact of state and foreign tax effects. For the year ended December 31, 2022, the Company’s effective tax rate was higher than the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate primarily due to the impact of state and foreign taxes and other permanent book-tax differences including non-deductible executive compensation and non-cash compensation. For the year ended December 31, 2021, the Company’s effective tax rate was lower than the U.S. federal statutory income tax rate primarily due to the impact of deductible non-cash compensation, non-deductible executive compensation, IPO related costs, foreign taxes, certain tax credits, provision to return adjustments and the impact of other permanent book-tax differences.

Deferred Income Taxes

Deferred income taxes reflect the net tax effects of temporary differences between the carrying amount of assets and liabilities for financial reporting purposes and the amounts used for income tax reporting purposes. The following table details the components of deferred tax assets and liabilities as of December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022:

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The Company has not recorded a deferred tax liability for foreign withholding or other foreign local tax on the undistributed earnings from the Company’s international subsidiaries as such earnings are considered to be indefinitely reinvested.

Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, research and development costs are no longer fully deductible and are required to be capitalized and amortized for U.S. tax purposes effective January 1, 2022. The mandatory capitalization requirement increases our deferred tax assets and cash tax liabilities.

On August 16, 2022, the U.S. government enacted the Inflation Reduction Act which, among other changes, imposes a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax (“CAMT”) and a 1% excise tax on stock repurchases. Once subject to the CAMT, a taxpayer will compute both its CAMT liability and its regular federal tax liability and pay the higher of the two. To the extent that the CAMT liability exceeds the regular federal tax liability, a taxpayer will receive a credit (“CAMT credit”) which can be used against its regular federal tax liability in the future when the taxpayer is no longer subject to the CAMT. The CAMT credit does not expire. The CAMT is effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2022, which means it became applicable to the Company effective January 1, 2023. The excise tax on stock repurchases applies to stock repurchases occurring after December 31, 2022.  The Company does not expect to be subject to CAMT or related excise tax.

Tax Valuation Allowance

The Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities are primarily comprised of purchased intangibles, book to tax differences in depreciation and amortization, book and tax differing treatment of accruals, net operating losses, and differing timing of stock compensation deductions. As of each reporting date, management considers new evidence, both positive and negative, that could impact management’s view with regard to the future realization of deferred tax assets. As of December 31, 2023, (i) the Company’s taxable temporary differences will provide sufficient US future taxable income to realize the US deferred tax assets and (ii) the Company’s projected future pre-tax book income in the US and respective foreign countries is expected to provide sufficient taxable income to realize the deferred tax assets within each jurisdiction’s respective statutory carryforward period. Based on this analysis, the Company has concluded that it is more likely than not that the Company will realize most of its US and foreign deferred taxes assets. A valuation allowance is assessed to a small amount of foreign capital losses and US tax loss carryforwards.

Net Operating Loss and Credit Carryforwards

As of December 31, 2023, the Company had a Federal net operating loss carryforward of approximately $6.1 million and a state net operating loss carryforward of approximately $8.7 million. Of these carryforwards, approximately $4.0 million of Federal net operating losses and $1.3 million of state net operating losses were acquired with the OpenSlate acquisition in 2021. In addition, the Company had loss carryforwards for various foreign countries where the Company has business operations. Of these carryforwards, as of December 31, 2023, the Company had approximately $1.5 million of German net operating losses that were acquired with the Meetrics acquisition in 2021 and approximately $4.7 million of French net operating losses that were acquired with the Scibids acquisition in 2023. The remaining aggregate amount of foreign loss carryover is not significant as of December 31, 2023. Federal net operating loss carryforwards can be used to offset against taxable income in the future and begin to expire in 2031. The Company utilized approximately $4.1 million and $7.9 million of Federal and state net operating loss carryforwards, respectively, in 2023. Utilization of Federal net operating loss carryforwards may be subject to annual limitations due to the “change in ownership” provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and similar state provisions. The Company’s net operating loss carryforwards are subject to the annual limitation under Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code.

Uncertain Tax Positions

The Company’s income tax returns are open to examination by federal and state authorities for the tax years ended December 31, 2020 and later. However, the Company believes that its tax positions are all highly certain of being upheld upon examination and intends to defend those positions if challenged by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) or another taxing jurisdiction.

The Company and its subsidiaries file income tax returns with the IRS in various state and international jurisdictions. The Company’s Israeli subsidiary is under audit by the Israeli Tax Authority for the 2021 and later tax years. Also, under audit by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the Company’s U.S. subsidiary for the 2019 and 2020 tax years. These examinations may lead to ordinary course adjustments or proposed adjustments to the Company’s taxes. Aside from the aforementioned, the Company is not currently under audit in any other jurisdiction.

For uncertain tax positions, the Company uses a more-likely-than-not recognition threshold based on the technical merits of the tax position taken. Tax positions that meet the more-likely-than-not recognition threshold are measured as the largest amount of tax benefits determined on a cumulative probability basis, which are more-likely-than-not to be realized upon ultimate settlement in the financial statements. The Company has unrecognized tax benefits, which are tax benefits related to uncertain tax positions which have been or will be reflected in income tax filings that have not been recognized in the financial statements due to potential adjustments by taxing authorities in the applicable jurisdictions. The Company's liabilities for unrecognized tax benefits, which include interest and penalties, were $2.7 million and $3.4 million as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The amount of unrecognized tax benefits that, if recognized, would affect the Company's effective tax rate are $2.3 million and $3.3 million as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, and include the federal tax benefit of state deductions. The Company anticipates that no unrecognized tax benefits will reverse during the next year due to the expiration of statutes of limitation.

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Changes in the Company’s unrecognized tax benefits were as follows:

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