Accounting for leases

Your first attempt at generating the financial statements is commendable. I have outlined and included an analysis and recommendation to deal with each issue you identified in your notes. Attached is an Excel file in which you will find the correcting entries, the required adjustments to the draft Financial Statements and additional details related to calculations for the lease agreement.

Needspace entered a operating lease with WeHaveIt for 10-Year Lease term.Lease agreements have certain provisions depending on how the contract is written by the lessor to the lessee and what type of lease agreement. In this lease agreement we are focusing operating lease with provisions of NeedSpace and WeHaveIt, which has a 10 year lease term, no options to renew or negotiate renewal offered in the contract and the lessee incurs certain cost, repairs and maintenance. In regards to ASC 840 leases, according to 840-10-20 and 840-10-05-9A, 840-10-05-9B an operating lease is when the lessor the owner of the property gives the lessee the right to use property, plant or equipment for a limited amount of time. Meaning the lessee

Section 1, titled terms lists the terms of the contract. The terms of the agreement must be definite and certain. All material terms must be included. The material terms allow a court to determine what the damages are in the event that one of the parties breach the terms of the contract. Section 1, of Exhibit D: Commercial Lease Agreement list the date the lease starts and the date the lease ends. It then lists the damages that the tenant may take if the landlord is not able to provide the leased premises in a timely manner. The section then goes on to state the terms of the renewal process. The process of renewing the lease is set with a written notice of 90 days. This process is definite and certain. The renewal provision then states that the terms shall be at the rental listed in the below sections of the agreement and upon the same covenants, conditions and provisions as contained in the lease agreement. Both the terms listed to lease the premises and to renew the contract is definite and certain and it lists the material terms.

Edmonds, T., Tsay, B., & Olds, P. (2011). Fundamental Managerial Accounting Concepts (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

ASC 410-20-15-3(e) also states that the lessee’s obligation to perform a retirement activity shall be recorded as ARO unless the payment meets the definition of minimum lease payments or contingent rentals under the lease accounting literature (ASC 840, Leases). Per ASC 840-10-25-5, the minimum leases payment is any costs obligated to make in connection with the leased property. However, the lessee’s obligation to restore the leased asset to the original condition is related to the leasehold improvement, not directly related to the leased asset. Accordingly, the cost of removing the leasehold improvements is not part of the minimum lease payment. In addition, due to the ‘no renewal option’ and ‘no ability to negotiate for the renewal’ under the lease agreement, it is certain that NeedsLease will incur costs to restore the leased property to its original condition in 10 years, which excludes the ‘contingency’. Therefore, the cost of reinstating to the property’s original condition should be accounted as ARO in accordance with ASC 410-20. Per ASC 410-20-25-4, ARO should be recognized at its fair value of reasonably estimated future cash flows and to offset the liability, the lessee capitalize the

The reason we want to capitalise the lease commitments is that reporting under operating assets leads to substantial amounts of off-balance-sheet assets and liabilities. Hence, it is difficult to compare financial statements between two similar companies but use different accounting methods for essentially the same transaction.

(c) The term of the lease is equal to 75% or more of the estimated economic life of the leased asset.

ASC 840-10-25-1b states “Bargain purchase option. The lease contains a bargain purchase option.” To conclude if criterion (b) is met, ASC

Although many variations of lease financing are available, potential lessees should be familiar with two general types of leases: the full payout lease and the fair market value (FMV) lease. The choice of lease is based upon the lessees’ long-term plans for the asset involved. A full payout lease is one in which the present value of the payment stream equals the acquisition cost of the asset. Options at the end of the lease typically include return, renewal, or purchase often for $1. The lessee is able to deploy and utilize the equipment, while the periodic payments of the full payout lease ease the financial burden of making a large IT acquisition. This option is a good choice when future ownership is desired, the dollar value of the equipment is substantial, the expected productive life of the assets is longer than five years, and the flexibility of spreading out payments would

David Jones does not included leases as part of their intangible assets but Myer does. This shows the different ways of recording accounting record between its competitors, and managers have an incentive to determine on the choice of recording items. This reflects business operation reflecting in its underlying business reality. Therefore, manager has higher chance to manipulate the accounting

Also, a limit to any leases issued needs to include a revisit date for amendments to a 20 or 30-year contract. By implementing this prevention, an amendment will help to prevent any corruption or abuse. (Chiodelli & Moroni, 2015). Not to mention that over the span of 20 or 30-years, a lot can

The author thanks Professors Martha Howe, Donna McConville, Ari Yezegel, participants at the 2013 North American Case Research Association Annual Conference, the 2013 American Accounting Association Northeast Region Annual Meeting, and 2014 American Accounting Association Annual Meeting for their comments and suggestions on the earlier versions of the case. Comments and suggestions of the editor, associate editor, and two anonymous reviewers are also gratefully acknowledged. Supplemental material can be accessed by clicking the links in Appendix A.

The objective of this report is to present the factual findings of the audit of operating leases to the CFO and CEO of the XYZ limited. The XYZ’s 2015 financial statements has shown the material amount of operating leases and therefore needs particular attention during the course of audit. The auditing of assets held under the leasing agreements involves the verification under the guidelines of IAS 17 Leases. The current accounting standard for leasing is applicable for Australian companies has been undergoing changes and the new accounting standard for leasing has been introduced to enhance the credibility of financial statements disclosures in the financial statements. The new standard contains significant new provisions for which the author need to consider the marital effects on the truth and fairness of reporting. The report will analyze the difference between the old and new standard, investigate the effect on financial statements ratios, and cash flows, profit & loss and balance sheet.

According to Steve Collings (2010), the accounting treatment of leases has presented a lot of problems over the years for the particular profession. Problems are observed in the way some leases are being treated in a business’ income statement and statement of financial position. Although, as we are going to expand more on that, the major problem of accounting for leases according to Collings (2010), is the manipulation of financial statements by incorrectly categorizing ‘finance leases’ as ‘operating leases’. The main purpose of the essay is to discuss why accounting for leases has been so controversial and whether the new standard (IFRS16) will give a more meaningful picture of companies’ financial position for lessees.

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