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Subject 1. Advantages of Leasing PDF Download

A lease in its most basic form is the renting of some sort of property. For instance, a company requires a forklift for its business, but cannot afford to buy one outright or, alternatively, does not need the forklift for a long period of time. As a result, the company leases the forklift for a period of time.

When purchasing an asset, the buyer acquires ownership of the asset and all benefits and risks embodied in the asset. A firm may acquire use of an asset, including some or all of its benefits and risks, for specified periods of time by making payments through a contractual arrangement called a lease. Using leases, a firm can avoid tying up too much capital in fixed asset investment.

General incentives for leasing:

  • Lessee ownership is closely held; risk reduction is important.
  • Lessor has market power and can generate higher profits by leasing the asset than selling it.
  • Asset is not specialized to the firm.
  • Asset's value is not sensitive to use or abuse (as owner takes better care of asset than lessee).
  • Tax incentives. If the lessee is in a low tax bracket and the lessor in a high tax bracket, there are tax benefits to structuring the lease as an operating lease. The reason for this is that by leasing the asset the lessor can retain greater tax benefits from owning the asset (such as accelerated depreciation methods for tax purposes).

User Contributed Comments 1

User Comment
hirokeee 'The lower leverage ratio and higher asset turnover' seem to no longer be true under the new IFRS16 principle. Note that under IFRS 16 now, a right of use asset must be recognised and a corresponding liability needs to be recognised in regards to the lease - hence, it has an almost nil effect on both the profit and loss (due to depreciation and incurred finance costs recognised from amortisation of lease) and does not have any effect on leverage ratios as an asset and liability is recognised (which corresponds to a nil effect on the balance sheet).

However, IFRS16 might not be applicable to the CFA syllabus for 2021 - just a heads up if anyone wants to keep up to date with this.
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Colin Sampaleanu

Colin Sampaleanu

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