Leasing And The International Accounting Standards Board

Recognition is the process for formally recording or incorporating an item in the financial statements of an entity as an asset, liability, revenue, expense, or the like. Recognition consist both initial recognition of an item and the subsequent changes in or the removal of a previously recognized item. The criteria in this statement is derived from the previous concept statements 2 and statement 3. For an item to be recognized, it should meet four fundamental recognition criteria. The four fundamental criteria are definition, measurability, relevance, and reliability. All four criteria are subject to a cost benefit constraint and a materiality threshold. The expected benefits from recognizing an item should justify the perceived cost of providing and using the information. Furthermore, an item and the information about it do not need to be recognized in financial statements if the item is not large enough to be material and the aggregate of individually immaterial items is not large enough to material to those financial statements. It is noted that the fundamental criteria apply to all recognition descisions.

Since there is a contractual liability for the lessee to perform general repair and maintenance, the maintenance requirement provision may be assumed as a present economic obligation, not just a future commitment. If the fair value estimate of future maintenance expense can be measured with sufficient reliability, the provision may lead to recognition of an accrued liability for the repair and maintenance performance obligation at the inception of the lease. The accrued liability for the repair and maintenance can be reversed when payment is made or liability is created through the performance of the required repair and maintenance.

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.

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.

‘Cash and cash equivalents’ include certain short-term investments and, in some cases, bank overdrafts. Like IFRS, ‘cash and cash equivalents’ include certain shortterm investments, although not necessarily the same short-term investments as under IFRS. Unlike IFRS, bank overdrafts are considered a form of short-term financing, with changes therein classified as financing activities. The statement of cash flows presents cash flows during the period, classified by operating, investing and financing activities. Like IFRS, the statement of cash flows presents cash flows during the period, classified by operating, investing and financing activities. The separate components of a single transaction are classified as operating, investing or financing. Unlike IFRS, cash receipts and payments with attributes of more than one class of cash flows are classified based on the predominant source of the cash flows unless the underlying transaction is accounted for as having different components. Cash flows from operating activities may be presented using either the direct method or the indirect method. If the direct method is used, then an entity presents a reconciliation of profit or loss to net cash flows from operating activities; however, in our experience practice varies regarding the measure of profit or loss used. Like IFRS, cash flows from operating activities may be presented using either the direct method or the indirect method. Like IFRS, if

However, the article by Milano (2012) also describes how operating leases can be an efficient and flexible way of leasing to many businesses. Leasing can be an advantage to a lot of successful companies if managed accurately. The lessee has a choice in the portion of the life of the asset they lease, meaning when that contract is up they can refresh the asset with a newer version which can lead to improved performance and reliability (Milano, 2012). These advantages can be received by both financing and operating leases, although the downfall of the operating lease is that the liability of the full cost of the asset is not recorded in their balance sheet, instead only the smaller cost of the annual expense is included. This could mean that an investor or owner taking on a company may not realise the large amount of expense that occurs from leasing an asset as the total liability cannot be seen.

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,

Among the tools required for every business to survive and thrive, the ability to maintain a regular self-examination holds an indispensable place. The size of the business in question is almost of no consequence, only the potential complexity of the self-examination changes. A prime tool for such self-examinations is the family of related financial reporting that has become nearly universal in western businesses: the income statement, the balance sheet, and the statement of cash flows. This trio of reports enables management and owners to carefully examine the holdings and liabilities of their business so they may make

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

There are three categories of leases, Capital, Operating, and Sale-Leaseback which are distinguished by their purpose influencing the process by which they are accounted for on the financials.

There are various issues involved in leases that may affect the interest of the trucking company. The first issue is related to the improvement cost of the leased asset. It is difficult to determine that this cost should be capitalized or should be treated as an expense. The different types of leases can have a significant impact on the financial reporting of the trucking company. “A sales-type lease or direct financing lease is recognized as an asset and liability on the balance sheet, while in an operating lease the rent payment is recognized as an expense”(Lee, 2003). It is also difficult to determine whether a particular arrangement is a lease or a simple business transaction. These issues may affect the profitability of the trucking company.

When accounting for leases, an operating lease records no asset or liability on the financial statements and the amount paid is expensed as it is incurred. On the other hand, a capital lease is recorded as both an asset and a liability on the financial statements and

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.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has issued for public comment two Exposure Drafts related to its disclosure framework project. The first exposure draft proposes amendments to Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts - Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting, Chapter 3 – Qualitative Characteristics of Useful Financial Information. The purpose of this proposed amendment is to clarify the concept of “materiality”. FASB defines materiality as, information is material if omitting it or misstating it could influence decisions that users make on the basis of the financial information of a specific reporting entity. In other words, materiality is an entity-specific aspect of relevance based on the nature or magnitude or both of the items to which the information relates in the context of an individual entity’s financial report. Consequently, the Board cannot specify a uniform quantitative threshold for materiality or predetermine what could be material in a particular situation.

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.