Final answer:
The correct entry to record deferred taxes depends on whether a Deferred Tax Asset or Liability is being recognized. If more taxes will be paid in the future due to temporary differences, a Deferred Tax Liability is increased and Income Tax Expense is recognized through a debit to Income Tax Expense and a credit to Deferred Tax Liability. If less taxes will be paid, a Deferred Tax Asset is increased.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question relates to accounting for deferred taxes for a company at its fiscal year end. When a company needs to record deferred taxes due to temporary differences between the accounting income and the taxable income, it is mainly concerned with recognizing deferred tax assets (DTA) or liabilities (DTL).
If the company anticipates paying more taxes in the future due to temporary differences, a Deferred Tax Liability is recognized. The entry for increasing a DTL and recognizing tax expense is a debit to Income Tax Expense and a credit to Deferred Tax Liability.
Conversely, if the company anticipates paying less in taxes in the future as a result of being overtaxed or having deductible temporary differences, it recognizes a Deferred Tax Asset. The entry would be Debit to Deferred Tax Asset and Credit to Income Tax Expense.
Therefore, without additional context, either option A (Debit to Deferred Tax Liability and Credit to Income Tax Expense) or B (Debit to Deferred Tax Asset and Credit to Income Tax Expense) could be correct, depending on whether the company is recording a deferred tax asset or liability. Option C (Debit to Deferred Tax Asset and Credit to Deferred Tax Liability) is not typically used as it involves offsetting one deferred tax account against another. Lastly, option D (Debit to Income Tax Expense and Credit to Deferred Tax Asset) is incorrect as it would imply reducing the tax expense with an increase in a deferred tax asset, which is generally not the way deferred taxes are recorded.