Income Taxes |
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| Income Tax Disclosure [Abstract] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Income Taxes |
We are incorporated in Bermuda. Under prior Bermuda law, we were not subject to tax on income and capital gains. Previously, we received from the Minister of Finance under The Exempted Undertakings Tax Protection Act 1966, as amended, an assurance that, in the event that Bermuda enacts legislation imposing tax computed on profits, income, any capital asset, gain or appreciation, or any tax in the nature of estate duty or inheritance, then the imposition of any such tax shall not be applicable to us or to any of our operations or shares, debentures or other obligations, until March 31, 2035. Such assurances were superseded by the passage of new legislation as described below. On December 27, 2023, the Bermuda Act was enacted in Bermuda. Under the Bermuda Act, the corporate income tax will be determined based on a statutory tax rate of 15% effective for fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2025. The corporate income tax will apply only to Bermuda tax resident businesses that are part of multinational enterprise groups with €750 million or more in annual revenues in at least two of the four fiscal years immediately preceding the year in question. Although the Government of Bermuda has released limited guidance with respect to specific provisions of the Bermuda Act as well as regulatory guidance, it is anticipated that further administrative guidance as well as regulatory guidance will be released over the course of the 2026 calendar year and beyond. As enacted, the Bermuda Act makes it clear that any corporate income tax liability is due regardless of the above assurances under the Exempted Undertakings Tax Protection Act 1966. Therefore, NCLH and its Bermuda subsidiaries became subject to the Bermuda corporate income tax effective as of January 1, 2025. The Bermuda Act provides for an international shipping income exclusion. In order for a Bermuda entity’s international shipping income to qualify for the exclusion, the entity must demonstrate that the strategic or commercial management of all ships concerned is effectively carried on from or within Bermuda. We believe we met the necessary requirements to qualify for the international shipping income exclusion. Additionally, the Bermuda Act provides for companies to be able to offset 80% of their Bermuda taxable income with any available tax loss deductions on an annual basis. The Bermuda Act provides for opening tax loss carryforwards based on the Bermuda taxable income (loss) results of the individual Bermuda entities in the five fiscal years prior to the enactment date, which includes the 2020 through 2024 calendar years for NCLH. The global minimum tax rules include three Pillar 2 taxing mechanisms to ensure large multinational businesses pay a minimum effective tax rate of 15% on their profits worldwide. The primary taxing mechanism is the QDMTT. No other taxing mechanisms apply to constituent entities (i.e., NCLH’s group companies) that are tax residents in a jurisdiction that has enacted a QDMTT. Since Bermuda has not implemented a QDMTT, the other two taxing mechanisms could apply such as the IIR or the UTPR. Even though NCLH and its subsidiaries became subject to the UTPR effective January 1, 2025, the Company did not recognize an impact from the UTPR mechanism for the year ended December 31, 2025. The primary reason for this result is due to the Pillar 2 shipping income exclusion, under which a significant portion of the Company’s income is excluded from the minimum tax calculation. In December 2023, the FASB issued ASU No. 2023-09, Income Taxes (Topic 740): Improvements to Income Tax Disclosures, which requires improvements to the effectiveness of income tax disclosures. The amendments in this update were effective for year ended December 31, 2025 and have been applied on a prospective basis. The components of net income before income taxes consist of the following (in thousands):
The components of the provision for income taxes consisted of the following benefit (expense) (in thousands):
Our reconciliation of income tax expense computed by applying our statutory rate and reported income tax benefit (expense) was as follows for the year ended December 31, 2025 (in thousands):
Our reconciliation of income tax benefit (expense) computed by applying our Bermuda statutory rate and reported income tax benefit (expense) was as follows for the years ended December 31, 2024 and 2023 (in thousands):
Deferred tax assets and liabilities were as follows (in thousands):
We have U.S. net operating loss carryforwards of $818.9 million and $848.4 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, which begin to expire in 2031, a portion of which relate to PCI discussed further below. We have state net operating loss carryforwards of $164.0 million and $30.3 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, which expire between 2026 through 2043. As described above, as a result of the new corporate income tax legislation enacted in Bermuda on December 27, 2023, we had Bermuda opening tax loss carryforwards of $4.2 billion and $3.7 billion as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, which can be carried forward indefinitely. We evaluate our deferred tax assets each period to determine if a valuation allowance is required based on whether it is more likely than not that some portion of the deferred tax assets would not be realized. The ultimate realization of these deferred tax assets is dependent upon the generation of sufficient taxable income during future periods. We conduct our evaluation by considering all available positive and negative evidence. This evaluation considers, among other factors, historical operating results, forecasts of future profitability, the duration of statutory carryforward periods, and the outlook for the cruise industry and broader economy. Based on the weight of available evidence, we maintained a full valuation allowance by recognizing a valuation allowance in the fourth quarters of 2025, 2024 and 2023 of $79.6 million $15.4 million and $532.4 million, respectively, with respect to our Bermuda net deferred tax assets. Included above are deferred tax assets associated with PCI. We have U.S. net operating loss carryforwards of $120.5 million and $155.0 million for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024, respectively, which begin to expire in 2031. Utilization of the PCI net operating loss carryforwards may be subject to a substantial annual limitation due to ownership change limitations that have occurred previously and/or that could occur in the future, as provided by Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (“Section 382”). Ownership changes may limit the amount of net operating loss carryforwards that can be utilized to offset future taxable income and tax, respectively. In general, an ownership change, as defined by Section 382, results from transactions increasing the ownership of certain shareholders or public groups in the stock of a corporation by more than 50 percentage points over a three-year period. If we have experienced an ownership change, utilization of PCI’s net operating loss carryforwards would be subject to an annual limitation under Section 382. Any limitation may result in expiration of a portion of the net operating loss carryforwards before utilization. Subsequent ownership changes could further impact the limitation in future years. We implemented certain tax restructuring strategies that created our ability to utilize the net operating loss carryforwards of PCI, for which we had previously provided a full valuation allowance. For a majority of our subsidiaries, we do not expect to incur income taxes on future distribution of undistributed earnings. For all other subsidiaries no deferred income taxes have been provided for future distributions of undistributed earnings as we are considered indefinitely reinvested, and quantification of the deferred income taxes is not practicable. We file income tax returns in the U.S. federal jurisdiction, various U.S. state jurisdictions and foreign jurisdictions. We are generally no longer subject to U.S. federal, state and local, or non-U.S. income tax examinations by authorities for years prior to 2022, except for years in which NOLs generated prior to 2022 are utilized. We derive our income from the international operation of ships. We are engaged in a trade or business in the U.S. and receive income from sources within the U.S. Under Section 883, certain foreign corporations are exempt from U. S. federal income or branch profits tax on U.S.-source income derived from or incidental to the international operation of ships. Applicable U.S. treasury regulations provide that a foreign corporation will qualify for the benefits of Section 883 if, in relevant part: (i) the foreign country in which the corporation is organized grants an equivalent exemption for income from the international operation of ships to corporations organized in the U.S., and (ii) the foreign corporation has one or more classes of stock that are “primarily and regularly traded on an established securities market” in the U.S. or another qualifying country. We believe that we qualify for the benefits of Section 883 because we are incorporated in a qualifying country and our ordinary shares are primarily and regularly traded on an established securities market in the U.S. |
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