(7) Income Taxes

Tax positions must meet a “more likely than not” recognition threshold at the effective date to be recognized. At December 31, 2019 and 2018, the Company did not have any uncertain tax positions. No interest and penalties related to uncertain tax positions were accrued at December 31, 2019 and 2018. Our tax returns for fiscal years 2016, 2017 and 2018 are open to examination.

We recorded a $217,168 tax benefit for the year ended December 31, 2019 from a corporate alternative minimum tax refund and no income tax benefit or provision for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Significant items making up the deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities as of December 31, 2019 and 2018 are as follows:

A valuation allowance is established if it is more likely than not that all or a portion of the deferred tax asset will not be realized. Accordingly, a valuation allowance was established in 2019 and 2018 for the full amount of our deferred tax assets due to the uncertainty of realization. We believe based on our projection of future taxable operating income for the foreseeable future, it is more likely than not that we will not be able to realize the benefit of the deferred tax asset at December 31, 2019.

We have net operating loss carry-forwards for federal income tax purposes of approximately $61,646,271 as of December 31, 2019. Included in these numbers are loss carry-forwards that were obtained through the acquisition of BioSeq, Inc. and are subject to Section 382 NOL limitations. These net operating loss carry-forwards expire at various dates from 2019 through 2038. Under the Tax Reform Act, NOL’s generated after December 31, 2017 can offset only 80% of a corporation’s taxable income in any year. With limited exceptions, NOL’s generated after 2017 cannot be carried back, but they can be carried forward indefinitely.

We have net operating loss carry-forwards for state income tax purposes of approximately $54,693,042 at December 31, 2019. These net operating loss carry-forwards expire at various dates from 2030 through 2037.

We have research and development tax credit carry-forwards for federal income tax purposes of approximately $1,188,308 as of December 31, 2019 and research and development tax credit carry-forwards for state income tax purposes of approximately $281,425 as of December 31, 2019. The federal credit carry-forwards expire at various dates from 2019 through 2039. The state credit carry-forwards expire at various dates from 2023 through 2034.

The following table reconciles the U.S. Federal statutory tax rate to the Company’s effective tax rate: