Final answer:
The accurate accounting entry for St. Bernard County's collection fees retained from taxes collected for other governments would be to debit the Tax Agency Fund to Taxes Receivable, as this reflects the collection fees as an offset to receivable rather than revenue.
Step-by-step explanation:
If St. Bernard County is authorized by state law to retain 1 percent of the amount of taxes collected for other governments, the recording for collection fees retained by the county is crucial in accounting. Since these fees help defray the costs of tax administration, but are collected on behalf of other governments, they don't constitute revenues for the county in a traditional sense. Instead, they offset the cost of collecting these taxes. Therefore, the correct recording would involve decreasing the Taxes Receivable because the county cannot claim the full amount of receivable as its own revenue due to the retention of the 1 percent fee.
Given the choices, the proper recording would be A debit by the Tax Agency Fund to Taxes Receivable (Option A). This entry reflects that the Tax Agency Fund is responsible for collecting taxes on behalf of other entities and recognizes that part of the taxes receivable will not be turned over to these entities but retained by the county. It's important to note that this fee is for the Tax Agency Fund's administrative costs and not revenue in the traditional sense; hence, it would not be credited as revenue to either the Tax Agency Fund or the General Fund.