Finance lease:
At commencement of the lease term, leases should be recorded as an asset and a liability at the lower of the fair value of the asset and the present value of the minimum lease payments (discounted at the interest rate implicit in the lease, if practicable, or else at the entity’s incremental borrowing rate).
Minimum lease payments shall be apportioned between the finance charge and the reduction of the outstanding liability. The finance charge to be allocated so as to produce a constant periodic rate of interest on the remaining balance of the liability.
The depreciation policy for depreciable leased assets should be consistent with that for owned assets.
If there is no reasonable certainty that the lessee will obtain ownership by the end of the lease term, the asset should be fully depreciated over the shorter of the lease term and its useful life.
Operating leases:
The lease payments should be recognised as an expense over the lease term on a straight-line basis, unless another systematic basis is more representative of the time pattern of the user’s benefit.
The following principles should be applied in the financial statements of lessees:
- At commencement of the lease term, finance leases should be recorded as an asset and a liability at the lower of the fair value of the asset and the present value of the minimum lease payments (discounted at the interest rate implicit in the lease, if practicable, or else at the entity’s incremental borrowing rate) [IAS 17.20].
- Finance lease payments should be apportioned between the finance charge and the reduction of the outstanding liability (the finance charge to be allocated so as to produce a constant periodic rate of interest on the remaining balance of the liability) [IAS 17.25].
- The depreciation policy for assets held under finance leases should be consistent with that for owned assets. If there is no reasonable certainty that the lessee will obtain ownership at the end of the lease the asset should be depreciated over the shorter of the lease term or the life of the asset [IAS 17.27].
- For operating leases, the lease payments should be recognised as an expense in the income statement over the lease term on a straight-line basis, unless another systematic basis is more representative of the time pattern of the user’s benefit [IAS 17.33]