Note 10 – Income Taxes

The Company elected to be treated as a RIC under subchapter M of the Code starting with its taxable year ended December 31, 2016. The Company currently qualifies and intends to qualify annually for the tax treatment applicable to RICs. A RIC generally is not subject to U.S. federal income taxes on distributed income and gains so long as it meets certain source-of-income and asset diversification requirements and it distributes at least 90% of its net ordinary income and net short-term capital gains in excess of its net long-term capital losses, if any, to its stockholders. So long as the Company maintains its status as a RIC, it generally will not be subject to U.S. federal income tax on any ordinary income or capital gains that it distributes at least annually to its stockholders as dividends. Rather, any tax liability related to income earned by the Company represents obligations of the Company’s investors and will not be reflected in the consolidated financial statements of the Company. The Company intends to make sufficient distributions to maintain its RIC status each year and it does not anticipate paying any material U.S. federal income taxes in the future.

Depending on the level of taxable income earned in a tax year, the Company may choose to carry forward such taxable income in excess of current year dividend distributions from such current year taxable income into the next tax year and pay a 4% nondeductible excise tax on such income, as required. If the Company determines that the estimated current year taxable income will exceed the estimated dividend distributions for the current year from such income, the Company will accrue excise tax on estimated excess taxable income as such taxable income is earned. For the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023, the Company recorded an expense of $0.9 million, $0.4 million, and $0.7 million, respectively, for U.S. federal excise tax, which is included in tax expense in the statement of operations. Differences between taxable income and net increase in net assets resulting from operations either can be temporary, meaning they will reverse in the future, or permanent. In accordance with Section 946‑205‑45‑3 of the ASC, permanent tax differences are reclassified from accumulated undistributed earnings to paid-in-capital at the end of each year and have no impact on total net assets.

For the years ended December 31, 2025, December 31, 2024, and December 31, 2023, the Company reclassified for book purposes amounts arising from permanent book/tax differences primarily related to non-deductible excise taxes paid. For the year ended December 31, 2025, the Company reclassified for book purposes amounts arising from permanent book/tax differences primarily due to non-deductible excise tax and the change in accounting method for recognition of incentive fees. The reclassified amounts are as follows (in thousands):

For U.S. federal income tax purposes, distributions paid to stockholders are reported as ordinary income, return of capital, long term capital gains or a combination thereof. The tax character of distributions paid for the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024, and 2023 was as follows (in thousands):

For tax purposes, net realized capital losses may be carried over to offset future capital gains, if any. Funds are permitted to carry forward capital losses for an indefinite period, and such losses will retain their character as either short-term or long-term capital losses.

For the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023, the Company did not utilize any capital loss carryforward to offset realized capital gains.

The Company accounts for income taxes in conformity with ASC Topic 740, Income Taxes ("ASC 740"). ASC 740 provides guidelines for how uncertain tax positions should be recognized, measured, presented and disclosed in the consolidated financial statements. ASC 740 requires the evaluation of tax positions taken or expected to be taken in the course of preparing the Company’s tax returns to determine whether the tax positions are "more-likely-than-not" of being sustained by the applicable tax authority. Tax positions deemed to meet a "more-likely-than-not" threshold would be recorded as a tax benefit or expense in the current period. The Company recognizes interest and penalties, if any, related to unrecognized tax benefits as "Tax expense" on the Consolidated Statements of Operations. There were no material uncertain income tax positions at December 31, 2025, December 31, 2024 or December 31, 2023. Although the Company files federal and state tax returns, the Company's major tax jurisdiction is federal. The previous three tax year-ends and the interim tax period since then remain subject to examination by the Internal Revenue Service.

If the Company does not distribute (or is not deemed to have distributed) each calendar year the sum of  (1) 98% of its net ordinary income for each calendar year, (2) 98.2% of its capital gain net income for the one-year period ending October 31 in that calendar year and (3) any income recognized, but not distributed, in preceding years on which the Company paid no U.S. federal income tax (the "Minimum Distribution Amount"), the Company will generally be required to pay a U.S. federal excise tax equal to 4% of the amount by which the Minimum Distribution Amount exceeds the distributions for the year. To the extent that the Company determines that its estimated current year annual taxable income will be in excess of estimated current year dividend distributions from such taxable income, the Company accrues excise taxes, if any, on estimated excess taxable income as taxable income is earned using an annual effective excise tax rate. The annual effective U.S. federal excise tax rate is determined by dividing the estimated annual excise tax by the estimated annual taxable income.

If the Company does not qualify to be treated as a RIC for any taxable year, the Company will be taxed as a regular corporation (a "C corporation") under subchapter C of the Code for such taxable year. If the Company has previously qualified as a RIC but is subsequently unable to qualify, and certain amelioration provisions are not applicable, the Company would be subject to U.S. federal income tax on all of its taxable income (including its net capital gains) at the regular corporate rate. The Company would not be able to deduct distributions to stockholders, nor would it be required to make distributions. In order to requalify as a RIC, in addition to the other requirements discussed above, the Company would be required to distribute all of its previously undistributed earnings attributable to the period it failed to qualify as a RIC by the end of the first year that it intends to requalify. If the Company fails to requalify for a period greater than two taxable years, it may be subject to U.S. federal income tax at corporate tax rates on any net built-in gains with respect to certain of its assets (i.e., the excess of the aggregate gains, including items of income, over aggregate losses that would have been realized with respect to such assets if the Company had been liquidated) that it elects to recognize on requalification or when recognized over the next five years.