Is Income Tax withholding an Asset or an Expense ??

[David]

My salary (and some other income) has US and State income taxes
withheld.

This year I want to set up my gnucash accounts to show my gross salary
and the deductions.  But it seems to make sense to show my income tax
liability as a liability, and the tax withholdings as an asset
(deducted from the paycheck to a Tax Prepaid 2003 asset account.)

Any estimated tax payments would go into the same Tax Prepaid 2003 account.

Then when I do my tax return the asset account would transfer to the
tax liability account, with the surplus coming back into my bank
account, hopefully as a refund check (or an extra payment to the government.)

I didn't see a tree like this idea in the examples.

So am I in fantasyland?  Are most of you (in the US) putting
withholdings, estimated tax and refunds in an expense account?

Will my suggestion get me in an overcomplicated mess at the end of the
year?  Can I get just as much information (for reconciliation at tax
time), and will it be less trouble, if tax is always an expense?

Look forward to reading your experiences and suggestions (apols if
this is obvious, I couldn't find a discussion of this topic when
googling the list archive, and I am afraid find reconciling refunds,
estimated tax and penalties a real pain by hand.)

David