[Jordan]

One of the practice problems in Becker talks about adjustments from governmental fund to government-wide F/S for property tax revenues that are measurable but not available. Since they aren’t available, they aren’t recognized in the fund financials so an adjustment is needed in the govt-wide F/S. I’m confused with the concept of Deferred Inflows and Outflows. The appropriate journal entry is:
Dr: Deferred Inflows
Cr: Tax revenue.

What type of account is deferred inflows? And why can’t you just debit Taxes Receivable instead? Another point of confusion is why these deferred inflows are added to liabilities, and deferred outflows added to assets, when coming up with net position.