A comparison of leasing according to the treatment of different accounting principles and diverse treatment in loacal GAAP´s of major industrial countries (ePub)

Wissenschaftlicher Aufsatz aus dem Jahr 2011 im Fachbereich Jura - Zivilrecht / Handelsrecht, Gesellschaftsrecht, Kartellrecht, Wirtschaftsrecht, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Leasing is more and more understood as a modern form of financing of various assets, both in the
commercial and the private sector. Leases have now become an integral part of economic life. With
their multiple creative possibilities and variations, leases are an equitable alternative to buying and
renting for companies.
The diversity of different forms of leasing, and the fact that there is no uniform lease contract as a
reference, results in lease accounting being one of the most difficult areas of accounting under almost
all jurisdictions. [1] This diversity leads to an accounting system for leasing business with different
possibilities to allocate positions in the P & L and balance sheet. Due to the lack of specific rules,
leasing accounting is mostly based on general accounting principles. [2] In Germany, relevant tax
decrees have impact on the local accounting. Leases are, in principle, not fixed on legal contract
types, and this allows temporary grant of use and utilization of liquidity-friendly financing alternatives
in the balance-sheet. Since most major accounting systems presuppose exclusion of pending
transactions from the balance sheet, [3] companies used contracts for grant of use, such as lease,
deliberately to influence the accounting. For example, sale and leaseback transactions are used to
reduce the balance-sheet debt, though the physical property mapping has not changed. [4]
The current lease accounting under IFRS 17 of the IASB is to be understood as a reaction to the
existing situation in the various accounting systems. The aim of the standard setter was to capture the
major part of the grant of use in the balance sheet. All postings, which change the asset allocation
similar to an investment, should also be accounted as such. [5] The concept of economic ownership
divides any grant of use in leasing into two classes. The finance leases which, simply put, means all
long-term and investment-like grants of use, and operating leases, which are any other grants of use.
This was still not sufficient for IASB members. Therefore chaired by Warren McGregor, the IASB
issued a joint project with the U.S. Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB), and since 2006, the
lease accounting is on the agenda as an active reform project. Basis for reform efforts was the socalled
McGregor paper of 1996. [6]
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