The Ministry of Finance of Russia has prepared guidelines for the application of the transitional provisions of the GHS “Fixed Assets” in relation to issues of reflection in accounting on the corresponding balance sheet accounts of real estate assets.

During your annual inventory, be sure to look at lease agreements and free use for all objects received by your institution without being assigned the right of operational management. Now such objects are listed in your accounting behind the balance in account 01 ().

Select all leases and free use agreements that may qualify as non-operating (financial) leases. To do this, check that the criteria listed in . It is not necessary that all criteria be met. The characteristics given, even individually, are the basis for classifying property as an object finance lease.

Give priority to finance lease criteria. Even if some signs are met operating lease, but at the same time there are signs of a financial lease, classify the property as a financial lease.

Despite the rather complex wording of the standard, the essence of the differences between financial and operating leases is not difficult to understand. Let's look at the problem using examples.

Example 1

Remaining term beneficial use The property is 20 years old and is leased for the entire 20 years. Moreover, according to the agreement, the tenant must pay rental payments in the amount of 4.9 million rubles. and receives the right to purchase the property.

IN in this case The lease term is comparable to the remaining period of use - this is one of the signs of a financial lease. In addition, the term of the lease agreement is important, but not the only criterion for determining the type of lease. Another sign of a financial lease is the comparability of the total amount of lease payments with the fair value of the object (). If a building can be purchased on the market for approximately 5 million rubles, and according to the lease agreement you will have to pay a total of 4.9 million rubles, we can talk about a financial lease. In such a situation, the tenant, as it were, buys the property.

Essentially, in our example everything beneficial features the object under the agreement will be transferred to the lessee, therefore this property as an object of financial lease must be reflected by the lessee in account 101 (). But the lessor, when renting out the property for financial lease, transferred all its useful properties. In the future, he will no longer be able to use the useful potential of the object or receive benefits from its use - the object does not correspond to the concept of “Asset” (). Therefore, the lessor must write it off the balance sheet ().

Example 2

If, with a remaining useful life of 20 years, the object is leased for only 3 years, this is a sign of an operating lease. During an operating lease, the lessor continues to account for the leased asset in account 101 (), and the lessee will have to account for the right of use in a special account (). For this purpose, it is planned to introduce a new account 111 “Rights to use property” into the chart of accounts from January 1, 2018.

When accounting for rent both in Russian and international standards Financial services of companies have many questions. How to classify it? Who should reflect the property on its balance sheet - the lessor or the lessee? How to distribute income and expenses between reporting periods? In this article we will look at the differences in approaches to solving these problems that IFRS and RAS offer.

Lease: operating or financial?

In order to correctly reflect a lease agreement in accounting, it is first necessary to find out what type of lease it is: operating or financial, that is, leasing.
Let's start with Russian legislation. To answer this question, you need to refer to the Federal Law of October 29, 1998 No. 164-FZ “On Financial Lease (Leasing)” (hereinafter referred to as the Leasing Law). According to it, the contents of the leasing agreement should be as follows. The lessor acquires ownership of the property chosen by the lessee from a specific seller. The lessor must provide the tenant with this property for temporary possession and use for a fee.
Respectively, rental relations under such agreements they are classified as leasing. All the rest must be taken into account as other rent, that is, operating rent. Thus, leases are classified solely depending on how the agreement is drawn up. Please note: the manufacturer cannot act as a lessor in relation to its own products.
In turn, IFRS divide leases into financial and operating leases depending on the economic content of the transaction. The first step is to find out who bears the risks associated with owning the asset and benefits from its use.
Thus, international standards classify as leasing the rental of property, all risks and economic benefits from the use of which are transferred from the lessor to the lessee.

“International” signs of leasing

IFRS offers 5 criteria that can be used to determine whether the risks and economic benefits associated with the leased asset have actually transferred from one partner to another:
1. By the end of the contract term, the lessee becomes the owner of the asset. Since the property will remain with the lessee for its entire useful life, the risks and rewards will pass to him.
2. At the end of the lease term, the lessee has the right to purchase the asset at a price that is significantly lower than its fair value at the time of such transaction. At the same time, even when concluding a lease agreement, the tenant must be sure that the property will be sold to him. That is, at the end of the lease period, ownership of the asset must pass to the lessee, although this is not subject to the obligations of the parties to the agreement.
3. The lease term represents a significant portion of the useful life of the asset. In this case, ownership of the property may not pass to the tenant. But since he will use the asset for most of its useful life, he will also reap most of the economic benefits.
Note that IFRS does not establish clear criteria by which to determine what part of an asset's service life is significant. In practice, 75 percent is usually used. However, do not forget that this is only an approximate value. It does not always indicate that the lease should be classified as financial.
4. The discounted value of lease payments on the date of signing the contract is equal to the fair price of the asset or constitutes a significant part of it (in practice, the figure is 90 percent). That is, in the described situation, the tenant actually buys the property with an installment plan.
5. The property is such that only the tenant may use it without significant modification.
So, the lease is classified. If this is an operating lease, then the differences in accounting under RAS and IFRS will be insignificant. But the accounting rules for finance leases are fundamentally different.

Balance dispute

It is necessary to find out which of the parties to the financial lease agreement will accept the property on their balance sheet.
In Russian accounting, the text of the contract will be of decisive importance. After all, partners can decide on the subject of leasing by mutual agreement (Article 31 of the Leasing Law).
In accordance with IFRS requirements, if a lease is classified as a finance lease, then the lessor must write off the property from its balance sheet. The tenant must take into account his own valuables. In Russian accounting, the asset may remain on the lessor’s balance sheet by agreement of the partners. In this case, the lessee will account for such property in an off-balance sheet account.

Accounting for a finance lease by a lessee...

1. Initial recognition. At the beginning of the lease period, the lessee needs to show the received assets and resulting liabilities on its balance sheet. IN general case property is valued at fair value. If it turns out to be more than the discounted amount of the minimum rental payments, an entry is made in the accounting for the amount of the rental payment. That is, property is reflected at the lower of two estimates (the principle of conservatism).
The present value of the minimum lease payments is determined based on the interest rate included in the lease. The latter is also called the implied rate - the one that the lessor used when calculating lease payments. Of course, in most cases it is not known to the tenant. Then you need to use the interest rate of a bank loan, the payment schedule for which would correspond to the terms of the leasing agreement.
If the discounted value of the minimum lease payments is less than the fair price of the property, it must be increased to the latter value. All initial expenses of the tenant will be included in the amount at which he will accept the property for accounting.
The rules for recording finance leases in Russian accounting are different. Thus, if, according to the terms of the agreement, the lessee must accept the leased asset on its balance sheet, it will take it into account at the nominal amount of lease payments. That is, RAS does not take into account the time value of money.
In IFRS, the lessee shows its obligations to the lessor also at nominal value. But at the same time, he introduces an additional account in which he reflects the amount of future interest expenses. As a result, the discounted amount of debt will appear on the balance sheet.
2. Cost accounting. According to IFRS rules, the lessee's expenses mainly consist of two components: depreciation of the leased asset and interest expense.
In RAS, parties to a contract may, by agreement, apply accelerated depreciation of leased property (Article 31 of the Leasing Law).
According to IFRS, the lessee must depreciate the leased assets according to the rules that it applies to similar property. However, he cannot establish accelerated depreciation.
Interest expense for the use of leased property is reported using the effective interest method 1, similar to interest on the company's long-term liabilities. But in Russian accounting, interest expenses are not shown. Rental costs will consist either exclusively of lease payments (when accounting for property with the lessor), or from accrued depreciation (when accounting for the lessee).

1 – More about effective interest rate see No. 1 “Consultant” for 2006 (p. 60).

...and the landlord

1. Initial recognition. If the lessor is not the manufacturer or dealer of the leased property, then when the asset is transferred to it, it must recognize a “receivable” on its balance sheet. The rules for its assessment are the same as for the tenant's debt: the total amount must be shown at nominal value. It is also necessary to enter an additional account to account for future interest income. As a result, the balance sheet will contain the current value of the debt. These are the requirements of IFRS. Concerning Russian accounting, then accounts receivable are reflected in full amount, that is, at nominal value.
2. Revenue recognition. Under international accounting standards, both the lessor and the lessee must record interest income over the entire term of the lease agreement. Moreover, they need to do this systematically and rationally. The constant rate of return is distributed among the lessor's net outstanding investment in the lease. The latter represent the difference between the nominal amount of debt and the amount of interest income not yet received. Thus, we are talking about the same effective interest rate method.
According to RAS rules, the lessor can reflect income in two ways. The choice between them depends on which of the partners accounts for the property on their balance sheet - the lessor or the lessee.
In the first case, the lessor’s income will be the amount of lease payments under the agreement. In the second, the difference between the nominal amount of all payments and the actual value of the transferred asset must be attributed to deferred income. In the income statement, this amount is reflected based on the terms of the lease agreement, and not evenly, as in IFRS.
3. Accounting retail lease. There is another important difference between IFRS and RAS. It is associated with the so-called trade lease. They talk about it when the seller of the property acts as a lessor. That is, when renting is essentially an alternative to purchasing an asset. In such a situation, IFRS requires the lessor to divide its income into two types:

1. profit or loss that is equivalent to the proceeds less expenses from the sale of the leased asset at market prices taking into account all discounts - on the date of reflection in the accounting of rental property;
2. interest income – throughout the entire lease term.

Unlike IFRS, according to Russian legislation, a product manufacturer cannot simultaneously be a lessor. In addition, RAS does not oblige dealers to record the financial result of a lease agreement as of the date of its conclusion. That is, the accounting procedure in this case will not differ from the generally accepted one.
Thus, Russian rules Accounting for finance leases differs significantly from international ones. Primarily due to the fact that the accounting procedure is largely determined by the characteristics of a particular transaction, that is, the terms of the leasing agreement. When accounting for this type of lease under IFRS, it is necessary to observe the principle of priority of the economic content of the agreement over its form. Differences in accounting for finance leases are also due to the fact that RAS does not have the concept of time value of money. Therefore, domestic companies cannot distribute interest income and lease expenses evenly based on the effective interest rate.

Table
Differences in lease accounting according to Russian and international standards

	The procedure for recording
Rental classification	Based on the terms of the contract	Depends on the economic content of the transaction
Accounting for leased property on the balance sheet of the lessor or lessee	Specified in the contract	The lessee always accounts for the asset on its balance sheet
Accounting for the transfer of property from a tenant	Based on the nominal amount of lease payments on the balance sheet or on an off-balance sheet account	Based on the lesser of fair value or discounted value of lease payments.
Reflection of expenses by the tenant	Costs consist of either lease payments or depreciation of the asset (accelerated depreciation is allowed)	Property is depreciated at general rules. Interest expense is recorded based on the effective interest rate
Accounting for the transfer of property from the lessor	If an asset is written off from the balance sheet, receivables are recorded at their nominal amount	Shows the discounted value of receivables
Reflection of income by the lessor	In accordance with the terms of the agreement	Based on effective interest rate
Trade lease accounting	There is no concept of trade lease	In addition to interest income, profit or loss from the sale of an asset is taken into account.

Operating lease or operating leasing - English Operating Lease, is an agreement that allows a tenant to use the property for the short term without obtaining title. An example of an operating lease would be the lease of commercial real estate by a business owner, the lease of an aircraft by an airline, or the lease industrial equipment manufacturers. There are many reasons to choose an operating lease over other types of leases or outright purchase of an asset.

In the case of an operating lease, the term of the agreement is usually significantly shorter than the period useful operation rental property. This type of lease is ideal for tenants who need to use a property without purchasing it. Owning property usually comes with many responsibilities and risks that may be unacceptable. An operating lease provides much greater flexibility, which can be very beneficial to the lessee, and a well-drafted lease can reduce the cost of doing business.

The opposite of an operating lease is a finance lease, the agreement of which involves partial transfer ownership. There are several criteria that allow a lease to be classified as a finance lease. However, it should be noted that these criteria are different countries are established by law and can vary significantly. For example, in the USA, a finance lease agreement must meet four main criteria:

• the agreement must provide for the lessee's right to take ownership of the asset at the end of the lease agreement;
• the redemption price must be lower than the current (at the time of expiration of the contract) fair market price asset;
• the contract duration must be at least equal to 75% of the expected useful life of the asset;
• the total amount of all lease payments must be at least 90% of the original amount paid by the lessor upon acquisition of the asset.

Also, finance and operating leases are reflected differently in financial statements, tax statements, and other statements of financial information. Because these differences are significant, in many countries the criteria for classifying an agreement as an operating or finance lease are clearly defined by law. This is especially important for publicly traded companies, since their reputation depends on the cleanliness and transparency of their financial statements.

The terms of an operating lease can vary significantly, so careful review and evaluation of the terms is extremely important for any lessee. If the parties have disagreements regarding the terms, or they consider some of the language in the operating lease agreement to be incorrect, they must resolve these differences before the agreement is signed and the parties assume certain obligations. The fact that an agreement has been signed makes it much more difficult to challenge its terms, which can lead to losses for both the tenant and the landlord.

An operating lease or operating lease is a contract or agreement that allows the lessee to use the lessor's property for a short-term period without acquiring ownership of the leased property.

Signs and features

There are some features of an operating lease agreement: the lessor is always the owner of the property. When the lease expires, much of the value of the rental property is not depreciated. The deal includes comprehensive Additional services carried out by the lessor. The assets leased out include equipment, production equipment, real estate, specialized vehicles and vehicles.

The property is transferred for a certain period to the lessee on the terms specified in the contract. During the period of operation of the operational leasing object, it can be transferred for use many times.

Types of operating lease

• Rent of commercial real estate necessary for business development.
• Rental of equipment for production.
• Aircraft rental.

What are these deals? Operating leases have their own characteristics. Transactions on it are always concluded for a short or medium term, not exceeding the service life of the leased property. In most cases, rent is carried out when developing one-time projects that are not systemic for this enterprise. That is, equipment is taken for some highly specialized purposes, these goals are realized and the equipment is returned to the owner. In the lease agreement, if additional services are expected to be provided, all services related to operational leasing that are provided by the lessor are spelled out in detail. In addition, in mandatory indicate not only specific terms for the return of leased property, but also the procedure for its operation.

Advantages

To conclude an operating leasing agreement instead of purchasing necessary equipment or there is usually a lot of property objective reasons. The period of a lease agreement is substantially shorter than the useful life of the leased property or equipment. In addition, having any property, the owner must take into account the risks and responsibilities that arise in connection with this fact. Sometimes such encumbrance is unacceptable for subjective reasons. In addition, this allows you to minimize the costs spent on organizing and running a business, including reducing the tax base. Renting commercial real estate is very popular now. The owner of the property, transferring it under operating lease, is responsible for the condition of the leased object, carries out maintenance and insures it. All risks associated with loss or destruction of property also rest with the lessor. Concluding an operating lease agreement has its advantages in the following situations:

Termination of an agreement

It must be taken into account that the lessee has the right to terminate the current lease only if the lessor provides property or equipment that is unfit for use. The growing popularity of operating leases can be explained by the fact that under this agreement the period of use of equipment or machinery is significantly more short term compared to the actual depreciation period. This is beneficial for the lessee, since he has the right to give the leased object to the lessor before the specified period, without purchasing it at the residual price, as with the financial leasing mechanism.

The lessee may purchase under these conditions new technology, but he is not obliged to buy an old one. This feature of operating lease allows you to increase business efficiency by regularly updating fixed assets. In addition, under an operating leasing agreement, the recipient has the right to lease equipment for certain contract work and for a very short time. For example, an operating lease is absolutely unprofitable if the leased object is not just machinery, but specialized equipment that requires expensive installation and dismantling. The consumable part, the risks associated with its movement and installation - all this negates the expected benefits of both sides.

The same goes for renting an airplane.

Actions of the lessee upon termination of the contract

The lessee has the right, by agreement of the parties:

• return the leased property to the lessor;
• replace the property taken under operational lease with another (for example, with a newer one that meets other goals of the lessee);
• extend the validity of an existing contract or enter into a new one;
• buy the leased property.

An operating lease brings benefits to both parties to the agreement: the lessee operates the equipment necessary for running the business without burdening itself with significant costs Money for its purchase and subsequent maintenance. The lessor receives income from property that he does not use himself. Traditionally, this type of lease is most common in construction, transport, mining, agriculture. The terms of an operating lease agreement are subject to significant change, so it must be carefully reviewed and the terms assessed.

If the parties find difficulties in trying to reach agreements (disagreements regarding the terms, or some of the wording of the operating lease agreement is incorrect), then they must resolve these contradictions before signing the agreement, when the parties assume the established obligations. An agreement that has already been signed, and therefore entered into force, greatly complicates the ability to challenge its terms in court, which, as a rule, leads to losses for both the lessor and the lessee. It is better not to let it come to this, but to solve problems before they take on the scale of a catastrophe.

Terms of the operating lease agreement

IN pure form The operating leasing mechanism is as follows. An organization receives an object (property, machinery, equipment) from a leasing company for a certain period of time, after which it undertakes to return it. For the use of this object, the organization makes monthly cash payments to the leasing company's current account, which, as a rule, are a lower amount than for a finance lease. The contract is signed for the period that is standard for the use of the rented equipment.

The difference between operating lease and finance lease is obvious.

If the period is less, then this is already considered a rental; if it is longer, then it is a rental in a standard form. Situations when leasing companies provide clients with additional services related to the maintenance and operation of equipment during the term of the contract, which are common in Europe, but still very rare in Russia.

An operating lease is used when the lessee is unable to pay the cost of the leased equipment, in contrast to the terms of the finance lease. With the latter, the tenant is simply obliged and has no right not to pay, full price equipment and interest. By the way, it is precisely this point that makes the financial lease mechanism unpopular among businessmen. Let's look at an example of how this scheme works. How does operational car leasing work for legal entities?

Using the operating leasing mechanism, the company takes several cars for a period of two years and gives them to customers for short-term lease. If you use the financial lease mechanism, then it is very likely that problems will soon occur, since the cars become outdated (especially those cars that have executive class) the park needs to be updated, and with such conditions it is not profitable. At the same time, when using the operating leasing mechanism, a company, after the expiration of the standard period, can renew its fleet of cars in the same leasing company, returning those cars whose service life under the contract has expired. This mechanism includes the full cost of depreciation of the rental car.

Operational leasing in Russia

What is the degree of development of the operating leasing institution in Russia? We have only taken the first steps in the development of this market, despite its popularity among foreign companies that work on Russian market. They all show remarkable activity in this area. But the majority of clients of such companies are still representative offices of other foreign organizations. As we have already said, in Europe and the USA this business tool has long gained strong popularity among businessmen. In Russia, operating lease or operational leasing is still a new experience, the market is just beginning to gain momentum, but the lack of information support makes it difficult to develop a new service. However, experts still last years note that interest in operating leasing is steadily growing. At the same time, the focus is gradually shifting from financial leases to operating leases. The development of this market segment will inevitably lead to tougher competition. This will allow only the most reliable and stable enterprises offering the most profitable terms receiving income from operating leases.

Rental objects

Of course, it is fundamentally wrong to consider operating leasing as a universal means of doing business. First of all, you need to assess the feasibility of using this tool for the tasks of your enterprise.

Restrictions

Experts remind that operating leasing does not apply to all types of objects. This situation arises not because of legislative prohibitions (it should be noted that the concept of “operating lease” is practically not spelled out in the current Russian legislation), but because of the inability to fulfill certain requirements. This can only mean that only those objects for which the use of such a scheme would be an advantage are subject to the terms of operating leasing. Thus, operational leasing is a financial scheme in which the use of the leased object is convenient and profitable, and the object of the operation can subsequently be sold without significant additional costs for secondary market. In this regard, the most popular type of operating leasing is the purchase of cars, the subsequent use of cars and a change of vehicle fleet in the same leasing company after some time.

Operating lease in IFRS

The concept is quite easy to understand. In cases where the lease agreement does not have any features of a financial lease, it is considered as an operating lease.

According to IFRS requirements, the total fee for the use of the leased object, provided for by the contract, regardless of the payment schedule, must be distributed across reporting periods for the entire lease term. However, IFRS determines that such distribution does not apply to payment for services provided by the lessor, reimbursement of the lessor's expenses, as well as contingent rent, the amount of which is determined by a non-temporary factor.

Operating leasing allows you to save on taxes

Rental payments under a leasing agreement reduce the tax base of the organization. Using the coefficient accelerated depreciation allows you to write off equipment faster than usual and significantly save on property taxes. The advantages of operational leasing are quite obvious: the acquisition of fixed assets with a minimal investment of own financial resources, the use of tax benefits, more efficient and flexible use the company's available resources versus borrowings. The efficiency and flexibility in the use of company assets over time not only does not decrease, but increases. The lessee who leases a car does not spend much time on paperwork. As a result, he receives a working and insured car, which can generate profit almost immediately. When obtaining a loan or financial lease, the entire process takes longer and takes more effort and money (insurance, repairs). Industrial equipment is also rented.

In this case, the lessor has no hope of compensating the cost of equipment or property that is leased to the lease recipient through rental payments under the agreement. However, the amount of payments under an operating lease agreement is higher when compared with a financial lease, because the lessor in such a situation has additional risks. Let us repeat once again that all obligations for obtaining insurance, carrying out Maintenance The leased object is fully assumed by the lessor. The possibility of loss, damage or breakdown of property is also a risk for the landlord. What to choose, financial or operating lease, is up to you.

We briefly talked about operational leasing, its features and the mechanism of development in our country.

Currently, up to 30% of fixed assets are purchased using lease agreements. There are the following types of lease: operating, return, combined.

Operating (service) lease involves transfer for use. Important characteristic operating lease, What distinguishes it from other varieties is the continuation and maintenance of the asset by the transferring party.

One of the pioneers of such operations was IBM. IBM leased computers, duplicating and office equipment.

Other properties that require financing and regular maintenance are ideal for operating leases, such as, road equipment, mechanical engineering equipment, etc.

In such a lease, the lessor is obligated to service. Lease payments usually include the cost of maintenance.

Characteristic feature operating lease is incomplete depreciation of the asset.

The rental property is rented out for a significantly shorter period than the established service. In this case, rental payments do not cover full cost rental property.

There are several options for the landlord different ways covering theirs. It is possible to renew the lease agreement, transfer the leased property for use to another tenant, or sell it.

An important clause in lease agreements is the cancellation agreement, which gives the tenant the right to terminate the contract early. The presence of this clause allows you to unambiguously classify the lease as operating.

The international standard IAS 17 “Lease” introduces the classification of leases. The type of lease is determined based on the distribution of benefits between both the lessee and the lessor.

Benefits arise from expected transactions over the life of the asset and from appreciation in value.

Risks are caused by the possibility of downtime, obsolescence of the rental item and changes in the economic conditions of its operation, leading to changes in market conditions.

Operating lease occurs if substantially all the risks and rewards are transferred to the lessee along with the leased asset. This is a fundamental difference from a finance lease or installment sale.

Operating lease accounting

Operating lease payments are reflected as sales of services in the lines “period expenses” for the lessee and “deferred income” for the lessor, indicating prepayment.

Lease payments, with the exception of maintenance costs, etc., are recognized as expenses subject to write-off. Write-offs are made on a straight-line basis.

One type of operating lease can be a leaseback. The term means that the owner of the asset sells the asset and receives for it. After the transaction is completed, the seller leases the sold asset.

Depending on the terms under which the asset is leased, the lease is classified by type as either operating or finance.

Currently being prepared new edition IFRS standard, in which the concept of operating lease will disappear.