Release date- 22082019 - The Financial Accounting Standards Board's new accounting standard for
operating leases is not expected to have an effect on the vast majority of Fitch-rated not-for-profit hospital and health system ratings, says Fitch Ratings, because Fitch currently includes
operating leases in its debt-equivalent calculations.
Under IFRS 16, both finance as well as
operating leases need to be reported on the balance sheet of lessees, with some exceptions.
DFDS A/S (CPH: DFDS), an international shipping and logistics company, announced on Friday that effective 1 January 2019, it will implement the new IFRS accounting standard on leases requiring all lease contracts, including
operating leases, to be recognised in the balance sheet.
Historically,
operating leases had been an easy, legal, and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)-approved way of keeping debt off the balance sheet for many years; however, that time has now passed.
Operating leases, however, are supposed to be footnoted on the balance sheet but are expensed on the income statement.
Transactions include debt placements, tax-subsidized leases and
operating leases. Burnham Sterling is affiliated with Greenwich Aircraft Leasing, a lessor/manager of 32 commercial aircraft on lease to major airlines in Europe and the Americas.
Similar to capitalizing
operating lease payments for business evaluation purposes, such as ratio analysis, current
operating leases can also be capitalized to ascertain potential business valuation effects resulting from the new lease accounting.
At the present time, the accounting standard AASB 117 (IFRS 17) distinguishes between finance leases and
operating leases on the basis of "risks and rewards" and requires the capitalisation of finance leases, with the recognition of the leased asset and lease liability in the balance sheet, while
operating leases are treated as mere expenses.
One of the key changes is that leases previously classified as
operating leases under current accounting standards will now be capitalized and thus reported on corporate balance sheets.
Lessees will now recognize
operating leases on the balance sheet.
The objective of the new leasing standard is to eliminate the estimated $1.25 trillion in off-balance-sheet financing found in most
operating leases, address concerns from the 2005 Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) report on off-balance sheet activities, provide more robust information in the disclosure notes about
operating leases, and increase transparency and comparability across organizations.
TTR, working with the finance industry, has added over 400 tax answers on buyouts of capital and
operating leases, greatly reducing time spent on research by tax and accounting professionals.