A Case Lease For Finance Lease

In 2010 the Foundation’s Journal of Equipment Lease Financing published an article on financial covenants in equipment lease contracts.  The article indicated that the addition of financial covenants to equipment lease contracts seemed to be on the rise.  One explanation was that credit officers began to wonder why a borrower in a traditional loan arrangement was required to meet financial requirements, while a lessee or borrower in an equipment finance transaction did not. The information on the use of such covenants was anecdotal. The lead paragraph in that article stated:

Since, such an agreement will be regarded as an Operating Lease and not a Capital Lease; this lease will not be reported on the company’s balance sheet. Keeping the lease off the balance sheet would make our financial ratios appear more attractive (lower debt/asset ratio) than otherwise. Hence, such a setup provides the advantage of financing the deal as an off-Balance Sheet item.

First take the present value of the residual at the rate implicit in the lease

9. What is the Cost of Debt, before and after taxes? Using the interest rate for the largest debt…cannot use the weighted interest rate for the debt since it includes capital lease obligations with no stated rate and could not find in the notes to the financials. 5.4% After tax cost is .054 x (1-.36) = 3.5%

According to "Minimum Lease Criterion" 840-10-25-4: "This guidance addresses what constitutes minimum-lease-payments under the minimum-lease-payments criterion in paragraph 840-10-25-1(d) from the perspective of the lessee and the lessor. Lease payments that depend on a factor directly related to the future use of the leased property, such as machine hours of use or sales volume during the lease term, are contingent rentals and, accordingly, are excluded from minimum lease payments in their entirety. (Example 6 [see paragraph 840-10-55-38] illustrates this guidance.) However, lease payments that depend on an existing index or rate, such as the consumer price index or the prime interest rate, shall be included in minimum lease payments based on the index or rate existing at lease inception; any increases or decreases in lease payments that result from subsequent changes in the index or rate are contingent rentals and thus affect the determination of income as accruable."

Case 11-6 deals with Lessee Ltd., a company that operates in Britain and uses IFRS. The question in this case is how to classify a lease that Lessee, Ltd. acquired from Lessor Inc. The accounting standard that deals with leases under IFRS is IAS 17. IAS 17 was originally issued in September 1982 and was reissued in December 2003. It classifies leases as either finance leases or operating leases. Finance leases make it so that the lessee recognizes an asset and a liability and the lessor recognizes a receivable, basically transferring all the risks and benefits of ownership. Under operating leases, the lessor still recognizes the asset and the lessee recognizes an expense.

Commercial Capital Corporation is the leasing subsidiary of a major regional bank and offers a lease at 12.75 million per year for 4 years. The first payment is due upon delivery and installation. The rest of the payments are due each subsequent year at the beginning of the year. This cost includes the same service contract as what would have been obtained with purchase.

To classify the arrangement, ASC 840-10-25-29 states that “If at its inception a lease meets any of the four lease classification criteria in paragraph 840-10-25-1, the lease shall be classified by the lessee as a capital lease.” On the contrary, if none of the criteria is meet, the lease should be classified as an operating lease (ASC 840-10-25-30)

A statement of the terms of the lease to the property must be present. Id. In these facts, YTNH and Mr. Massey agreed to five years of rental with the first year at a rate of four dollars per square foot, and the years thereafter, at an annual rental rate that would automatically change in accordance with the Consumer Price Index for the South Urban region.

A2: Jack should recognize the $1.2 million as rental expense along with all the other lease payments ratably over the 10 years (lease term of the new agreement). It should initially be accounted for as prepaid lease payments and then be recognized as lease expense over the next 10 years as par. 840-10-35-4 states, “If at any time the lessee and lessor agree to change the provisions of the lease, other than by renewing the lease or extending its term, in a manner that would have resulted in a different classification of the lease under the lease classification criteria in paragraphs 840-10-25-1 and 840-10-25-42 had the changed terms been in effect at lease classification inception, the revised agreement shall be considered as a new agreement over its term, and the criteria in paragraphs 840-1025-1 and 840-10-25-42 shall be applied for purposes of classifying the new lease. Likewise, except when a guarantee or penalty is rendered inoperative as described in paragraphs 840-30-35-8 and 840-30-35-23, any action that extends the lease beyond the expiration of the existing lease term, such as the exercise of a lease renewal option other than those already included in the lease term, shall be considered as a new agreement, which shall be classified according to the guidance in section 840-10-25. Changes in estimates (for example, changes in estimates of the economic life or of

2. Argue for treating the lease as an operating lease and discuss the ethical implications of selecting this alternative

i. The present value of the future minimum lease payments is equal to $8,546. This amount was calculated by discounting each of the payments at the given rate of 12%.

The bank lends amount $Y to ABC for the purchase of Lexington. The bank loan is repaid in 20 equal, year-end, payments. However, the bank insists that the lease payments must be 110% of the annual repayments of the bank loan. Note that the equal bank loan repayments include interest and principal.

According to IAS 17.20, at the beginning of the lease term, lessees shall recognise finance leases as assets and liabilities in their statements of financial position at a lower or equal amount to the fair value of the leased property and the present value of the minimum lease payments, determined at the start of the lease. The discount rate used in calculation of the present value of the minimum lease payments is the interest rate implied in the lease, if only is it feasible to determine. If it is not possible, the lessee’s incremental borrowing rate could be used. Therefore, any initial direct costs of the lessee are added to the amount recognised as an asset. Furthermore, as stated by IAS 17.25, finance lease payments should be allocated

Under IFRS, lease classification depends on whether substantially all of the risks and rewards incidental to ownership of a