Fannie Mae will miss a March 18 deadline for reporting its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2012 while it analyzes how to handle some deferred tax assets, the company told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fannie Mae expects to report “significant net income” for both the last quarter of 2012 and the full year, the company said in the SEC filing Thursday.

Washington-based Fannie Mae and McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac have received almost $190 billion in taxpayer assistance since they were taken into federal conservatorship in September 2008 amid losses on risky loans that pushed them to the brink of insolvency.

The two companies, which package mortgages into securities on which they guarantee payments of principal and interest, began reporting regular quarterly profits last year as the housing market rebounded.