Why A? And why not the others?

Correct answer: A. The property tax should be allocated across all four quarters of the year, with only one quarter's proportionate share expensed in the first-quarter interim financial statements

ASC 270 reflects an integral view of interim periods, treating each interim period as an integral part of the annual period rather than as a standalone reporting period in its own right, which means costs that clearly benefit the entire year, such as an annual property tax assessment, should be allocated to the interim periods they benefit rather than expensed all at once in the period paid; here that means only the first quarter's proportionate share is expensed in the first-quarter statements, with the remainder allocated to the later quarters. The option expensing the full amount in the first quarter because that is when cash was paid is wrong because it applies cash-basis, discrete-period thinking that the integral view specifically rejects for costs benefiting the whole year; the timing of payment does not by itself determine the timing of expense recognition. The option deferring the entire amount to the fourth quarter is wrong because that would just shift the same all-at-once distortion to a different quarter instead of allocating the cost across the periods it actually benefits. The option excluding the cost from interim statements entirely is wrong because ASC 270 requires interim financial statements to reflect all costs and expenses of the entity, including an appropriately allocated share of costs that benefit the full year, not to omit them until year-end.

Source: FASB Accounting Standards Codification: ASC 270-10, Interim Reporting