Affirm Holdings Inc

17. Income Taxes

The quarterly provision for income taxes is based on the current estimate of the annual effective income tax rate and the tax effect of discrete items occurring during the quarter. Our quarterly provision and the estimate of the annual effective tax rate are subject to significant variation due to several factors, including variability in the pre-tax jurisdictional mix of earnings and the impact of discrete items.

For the three and six months ended December 31, 2023, we recorded income tax expense (benefit) of $(0.7) million and $0.3 million, respectively, which was primarily attributable to deferred taxes recognized by certain foreign subsidiaries, various U.S state and other foreign income taxes, and the tax amortization of certain intangibles. For the three and six months ended December 31, 2022, we recorded income tax expense (benefit) of $(1.6) million and $(1.7) million, respectively, which was primarily attributable to the effects of foreign income taxes on our Canadian subsidiary and partially offset by various U.S state and other foreign income taxes, as well as the tax amortization of certain intangibles.

As of December 31, 2023, we continue to recognize a full valuation allowance against our U.S. federal and state and certain foreign net deferred tax assets. This determination was based on the assessment of the available positive and negative evidence to estimate whether sufficient future taxable income will be generated to utilize the existing deferred tax assets. A significant piece of objective negative evidence evaluated was the cumulative loss incurred by us for the prior three fiscal years. The presence of a three-year cumulative loss limits the ability to consider other subjective evidence, such as our expectations of future taxable income and projections for growth.