Chapter 20 - Leases Flashcards
What is a lease?
A lease is a contractual obligation between a lessor and a lessee that gives the lessee the right to a certain asset owned by the lessor for a specified time, in return for stipulated payments.
What should lease terms include?
- Any periods covered by renewal options.
- Any periods for which the failure to renew would result in a penalty that at the time of inception, the lessee would want to avoid.
What are executory costs?
These may be provisions within the lease where the lessee has to pay for taxes, maintenance and insurance.
What may happen at the end of the lease?
At the end of the lease, they may purchased the leased asset. This could be at a bargain (significantly below the fair value) or fair value.
What are five advantages of leasing?
- 100% financing at a fixed rate. (No upfront payment required)
- Protection against obsolescence.
- Flexibility
- Less costly financing
- Off balance sheet financing - No need to report obligations for future lease payments under certain circumstances.
What is an operating lease under ASPE from the perspective of the lessee?
This is the most simple type of lease, where the lessee company will record a rent expense each month.
What is a capital lease under ASPE? What is the capital lease equivalent from the perspective of the lessor?
When a lessee gains a significant portion of the risk and benefits of ownership, it will record the leased assets on its books, and an offsetting liability known as a lease obligation. From the perspective of the lessor, it is known as a sales type o direct financing lease.
What is the approach used under ASPE to determine if a lease if operating or capital?
It applies the classification approach
What is the approach used under IFRS for leases?
It applies the contract based approach, however it does not differentiate between capital lease and the operating lease. It capitalizes all leased assets because a contract exists between the lessor and lessee. It is consistent with the revenue recognition standards.
What are four possible criteria for determining if a lease is capital under ASPE? How many must be met to capitalize it?
- Lease transfers ownership of the asset to the lessee by the end of the lease term.
- Lease contains a bargain purchase option.
- The lease term is 75% or more of the estimated economic life of the asset at the beginning of the term.
- The PV of the minimum lease payment at the inception of the lease is 90% or more of the fair value of the leased asset.
We only need to meet one of the four criteria.
What is the minimum rental payment (MRP)? Who determines these payments?
These are the periodic rental payments for the asset and do not include executory costs. The lessor determines these payments.
What is the guaranteed residual value? Who else can guarantee this value besides the lessee?
The lessee guarantees this value to the lessor, which is the amount of residual value the asset will have at the end of the lease term. A third party who has a relationship with the lessee can guarantee this value.h
What is a bargain purchase option?
The asset is sold at less than 90% of the fair value of the asset at the end of the lease.
What are the four aspects of the Minimum Lease Payment?
- Minimum rental payment.
- Guaranteed residual value
- Penalty for failure to extend or renew the lease.
- Bargain purchase option.
What do we do if the guaranteed residual value is unguaranteed?
We will not include it in the minimum lease payment for the lessee. We do this because it is not certain.
What rate is used to calculate the present value of the minimum lease payments? Why do we use the lower rates?
It is the lesser of the lessees incremental borrowing rate or the rate which is the implicit rate on the lease if that is known. We do this because we will record the lease obligation at a higher amount, making the financial statement more conservative.
What is the advantage of using the implicit interest rate?
It is less prone to estimation, who may have an incentive to not capitalize the lease.
What is the incremental borrowing rate?
It is the rate of interest, that a lender would charge a lessee to borrow funds for a similar term and a similar security, to purchase the asset.
What is the implicit rate?
It is the rate in which, when applied to the minimum lease payments and the unguaranteed residual value accrued, caused the PV to be equal to the fair value of the lease asset at the inception of the lease.
How do we account for a capital lease?
- The lessee will record the asset at the PV calculation of the minimum lease payment, unless the value exceeds fair value, in which the asset would be recorded at fair value.
- We record an offsetting lease obligation.
- When we make lease payments, a portion of the payment goes to the interest and the other portion to the principal through the effective interest rate method.
How do we account for depreciation on a capital lease?
- If the asset is not going to be passed to the lessee, we will use any depreciation method we deem as appropriate over the life of the lease.
- If the asset is likely to be passed due to the existence of a bargain, or the other 3 criteria, it should be over the economic life.
T or F: We can group assets for efficiency when accounting for leased assets?
True.
T or F: Regardless if the lease is operating or capital, they have the same overall net effect on the statement of income
True
Which type of lease has higher expenses and why?
The capital lease has the higher expense as the amount of the obligation is larger and thus more interest will be earned on it, however as time goes on it has less and less expense. The operating leases expense stays constant.