Lease Of A Capital 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:

Finance leases are not capitalized. As a result, understatement of assets, liabilities, and debt-to-asset ratio will occur.

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.

Leasing became the leading form of off-balance sheet financing - using an asset without reflecting it or its financing on the balance sheet.

The next type of lease is the financial lease. This lease does not include a maintenance fee and this type of lease is like a rent to own when the lease is paid in full the ownership is transferred to the organization.

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. In a sales-type lease the carrying value of the asset is charged to cost of the asset leased (expense), and the present value of the minimum lease payment as the amount of the sale. For direct financing leases no sales or expense is recognized because the asset is removed from the books. The difference between its carrying value and the undiscounted minimum lease payments is recorded as unearned interest revenue. The net investment in a sales type lease ia accounted for in a similar manner as a direct financing

Then thirdly, the operating lease is when the lessor depreciates the leased asset according to its depreciation policy. The maintenance costs of the leased asset are charged as an expense, the costs, such as finder’s fees and credit checks, are amortized over the lease term, and the leased equipment and accumulated depreciation are shown as equipment leased to others. Usually any lease that do not fall under the criteria for a direct financing lease or sales-type lease are recorded as an operating lease.

Upon researching the legal requirements and current status of Mr. William Massey’s lease agreement with YourTeamNameHere!.com, Inc. (YTNH) when Mr. Kelly Bennett acted on behalf of YTNH, as an authorized agent, in the acquisition of the property located at 1831 Storybook Road, Charlotte, North Carolina. The assessment of the contract’s validity will be completed through the following enumerated points: (1) whether the lease is required to be in writing, (2) what must the lease contain to be valid, and (3) whether the parties existing writings satisfy the legal requirements of North Carolina.

From the above classification we can see that all the points indicate that the leases undertaken by David Jones Ltd as a Lessee are Operating Leases or Finance leases and can be determined using the steps above. Being such a big company, David Jones Ltd has both Operating and Financial leases and they are taken mainly to run the firm’s stores and warehouses. Under the annual report for the half year ended 2013 it is clearly evident that the cost of leasing activities for David Jones Ltd has increased by 4.17mn. “Payments made under operating leases, where the lease agreement includes predetermined fixed rate increases, are recognised in the Statement of Comprehensive Income on a straight-line basis over the term of the lease. Other operating lease payments are expensed as incurred. Lease incentives received are recognised in the Statement of Comprehensive Income as an integral part of the total lease expense and spread over the lease term.”

At the lease commencement, finance leases are capitalised at the fair value of the leased property, otherwise the present value of the minimum lease payments if lower (MHI, 2014). Other short term and long term payables include the relevant rental obligations and net of finance charges (MHI, 2014). Every lease payment is apportioned between the liability and finance charges (MHI, 2014). The finance cost is indicated in the comprehensive income statement for the lease period as well as to generate a constant periodic rate of interest on the remaining balance of the liability for each period (MHI, 2014). During the lease term, the depreciation is considered for the useful life of the asset such as the property, plant and equipment assigned under finance leases (MHI, 2014). The portion of the risks and rewards of ownership are persevered by the lessor are categorized as operating leases for leases (MHI, 2014). For the period of the lease, all payments made under operating leases less any incentives from lessor are indicated in the comprehensive income statement on a straight-line basis (MHI,

While working on a consulting engagement, a supervisor in the team has given an assignment. The client is a regional trucking company. A new customer has approached the client with an opportunity that would require 120 trailers—20 more than the trucking company currently owns. The client is uncertain how long the relationship with the customer may last, but the deal has the potential for significant growth. The supervisor has asked a research to be conducted on leases and lease structure issues on the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) website, in particular the current practice and thought related to direct financing, sales type, and operating leases. This paper is a memo addressed to the supervisor that summarizes

A company may use capital leases to finance its acquisition of capital assets. In lease financing a company must met the criteria of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on capital leases. In this a company must record both a liability, and a related asset on its balance sheet. In reporting capital lease a company reports the lease at its present value of the minimum lease payments. The company allocates these lease payments using the effective interest method to interest expense. This allocation using the effective interest method reduces the lease liability of the company.

Why did the FASB embark on a project to change the reporting standard for leases? Under the current financial reporting standards for leases, an entity has to determine the classification of leases to account for by applying bright-line rules. This creates a potential opportunity for management to structure leases in order to achieve a specific desired accounting results (FASB). In addition, the current accounting model does not require operating leases to be recognized on the balance sheet. As a result, investors may underestimate the assets and liabilities that arise from leases and, thus, cause an uninformed decision of investment. According to a 2014 study on public company filings, nearly a trillion U.S. dollars were reported in

books and depreciated, and the lessee recognizes lease payments in the income statement in the period in which it is paid.