All articles by David Maxwell

New lease accounting rules

David Maxwell summarises proposed new lease accounting standards published on 17 August 2010 by the International Accounting Standards Board and the US Financial Accounting Standards Board. A lease is defined as “a contract in which the right to use a specified asset is conveyed, for a period of time, in exchange for consideration”. However, certain leases falling within this definition are specifically excluded from the requirements of the proposed new standard, such as leases of intangibles, leases falling within IAS 40 or IAS 41 or leases that are treated by the standard as being purchases or sales.