Classify Payment Lease For Free

Under ASC 840, lease classification (i.e., determining if a lease is a capital or operating lease) was decided when the lease was executed (i.e. lease inception). Under ASC 842, the lease classification (finance or operating) is determined at lease commencement.

The lessor reports the lease as a leased asset on the balance sheet and individual lease payments as income on the income and cash flow statements. The lessee reports the lease as both an asset and a liability on the balance sheet due to their stake as a potential owner of the asset and their required payment.

How do you determine if a lease is an operating lease or a finance lease? Well, that is where the lease classification test comes into play. As a guiding principle, if the majority of the assets life is controlled by the lessee, then it should be classified as a finance lease. If not, then it is an operating lease.

If the lease meets any of the criteria, then it must be recorded as a finance lease. The five criteria relates to a bargain purchase option, transfer of ownership, net present value of lease payments, economic life, and whether the asset is specialized.

There are two types of lease classifications for a lessee: finance and operating. There are three types of leases for a lessor: direct financing, sales-type, and operating leases.

If the lease meets any of the criteria, then it must be recorded as a finance lease. The five criteria relates to a bargain purchase option, transfer of ownership, net present value of lease payments, economic life, and whether the asset is specialized.

Under FASB ASC 842, a lessee can classify a lease as either an Operating lease or a Finance lease. A Finance lease is accounted for in a manner similar to a Capital lease under ASC 840 where an ROU asset and a lease liability are recorded equal to the NPV of the lease payments.

ASC 842 requires both lessors and lessees to determine the classification of all leases at the commencement of the lease. The commencement date would be the date when the lessor makes the underlying asset available for the lessees use.

The actuarial method of accounting for a finance lease allocates the interest to the period it actually relates to, ie the finance cost is higher when the capital outstanding is greatest, but as the capital gets repaid, interest payments become lower (similar to a repayment mortgage that you may have on your property).

For example, if a lease payment were for a total of $1,000 and $120 of that amount were for interest expense, then the entry would be a debit of $880 to the capital lease liability account, a debit of $120 to the interest expense account, and a credit of $1,000 to the accounts payable account.