leasehold interest in land always represented pre-paid lease payments to be amortised
over the lease term in accordance with the pattern of benefits provided.6 This treatment
is now reserved for prepaid land rentals that are not classified as finance leases. An
example would be a lease premium that comprises ten year’s prepaid rentals, which is
most unlikely to be classified as a finance lease.
3.3.1
Measurement and presentation of operating leases over land
Prepayments that are classified as operating leases over land and buildings are disclosed
as current or non-current assets, as appropriate, in the entity’s statement of financial
position. If certain costs arise at the inception of the lease that are necessary to
consummate the agreement and enable a lessee to exercise its rights under the lease
agreement, these costs are incurred as a direct result of the lease. Therefore, it is
appropriate to consider these as lease-related costs that should be subject to the same
accounting treatment as prepaid lease payments. Initial direct costs of leases are
discussed at 3.4.8 below.
1630 Chapter 23
The following is an example of presentation of pre-paid operating leases in the
statement of financial position, together with the supporting note.
Extract 23.2: VTech Holdings Limited (2016)
Consolidated Financial Statements [extract]
Consolidated Statement of Financial Position [extract]
As at 31 March 2016
2016 2015
Note
US$ million
US$ million
Non-current assets
Tangible assets
7
68.4 67.0
Leasehold land payments
8
4.8 5.0
Deposits for acquisition of tangible assets
9
3.3 –
Investments
10
3.1 0.1
Deferred tax assets
11(b)
4.0 4.5
83.6 76.6
Notes to the Financial Statements [extract]
Principal Accounting Policies [extract]
J Leases [extract]
Leasehold land payments are up-front payments to acquire long-term leasehold interests in land. These payments are
stated at cost and are amortised on a straight-line basis over the respective period of the leases.
8
Leasehold Land Payments
2016
2015
Note
US$ million
US$ million
Net book value at 1 April
5.0
5.1
Amortisation 2
(0.2)
(0.1)
Net book value at 31 March (note (i))
4.8
5.0
Leasehold land payments in respect of:
Owner-occupied
properties
4.8
5.0
Note:
(i) Included in leasehold land payments is the amount of US$3.0 million
(2015: US$3.0 million) paid for the acquisition of certain sites in the PRC.
3.3.2
Separating land and buildings
A characteristic of property leases in some jurisdictions (such as the UK) is that it is not
possible to lease a building without leasing the land on which it stands – under UK property
law all such leases are leases of land and everything attached to it. There is no separate fair
value for the land and buildings elements as they cannot be disposed of separately and the
IASB noted that in substance such leases may differ little from buying a property.
[IAS 17.BC5]. Notwithstanding this, the standard states explicitly that the land and buildings
elements of leases are considered separately for the purposes of lease classification.
[IAS 17.15A]. Each part must be classified as an operating or finance lease in the same way as
leases of other assets.7 This does not apply to leases of investment properties where there
is no requirement to separate the land and buildings elements; see 3.3.3 below.
Leases (IAS 17) 1631
Entities may need to make the allocation between the land and buildings elements even
if both are clearly finance leases as there could be a difference in amortisation methods,
although this would be very unusual. [IAS 17.BC8F]. Much more common is a difference
in useful economic life, where an entity takes out a lease for land and buildings where
the term is longer than the useful life of any building on the land, e.g. a lease of 75 years
over land on which there is a building that has a remaining useful life of 30 years.
If either or both parts of the lease comprise a finance lease, the minimum lease
payments need to be allocated between the land and buildings elements in proportion
to the respective fair values of the leasehold interest in the land and buildings elements
at the inception of the lease. The minimum lease payments must, of course, include any
up-front payments, such as the payment for a lease premium. [IAS 17.16].
The allocation of the minimum lease payments should be weighted to reflect the fair value
of the land and buildings components to the extent they are the subject of the lease. This
means that the amount that is being allocated is the lessee’s leasehold interest in the land and
buildings and the compensation received by the lessor, not the relative fair values of the land
and buildings. The amount for which the land could be purchased at the inception of the
lease is not the same as the value of that interest to the lessee. As land has an indefinite life,
the value to the lessor may not be significantly affected by the grant of the lease. [IAS 17.BC9-11].
The standard addresses the fact that it may not be possible to determine the fair values
of the elements at inception and allows the following:
• if it is difficult or impossible to allocate the payments between the two elements,
then the entire lease may be classified as a finance lease unless it is obvious that
both the land and buildings elements are operating leases; [IAS 17.16] and
• if the land element is immaterial, the lease may be treated as a single unit and
classified as a finance or operating lease. The economic life of the entire leased
asset will be the economic life of the buildings. [IAS 17.17].
Some examples of the ways in which these exemptions may operate in practice are
as follows:
Example 23.8: Leases of land and buildings
Consider the following scenarios:
• Company A leases a building (and the underlying land) for 10 years. The remaining economic life of
the building when the lease is entered into is 30 years. The lease is for considerably less than the
economic life of the building so it is clear that both the land and buildings elements are operating leases
and no separation is necessary.
• Company B enters into a 30-year lease of a new building and the underlying land. It is on a retail park
and almost all of the value is ascribed to the building as land values are low. Although the building has
a fabric life of 60 years, its economic life is estimated to be 30 years, after which it is expected to be
technologically obsolete. The lease is for a major part of the economic life of the building and the present
value of the minimum lease payments amounts to substantially all of the fair value of the building. It is
&
nbsp; not legally possible to lease the building without leasing the underlying land. In any event, the lessor
retains the residual value in the land and the lessee’s interest in the land alone will be insignificant
because of the low land values, therefore the land element would be immaterial. The entire lease is
accounted for as a finance lease with an economic life of 30 years.
• Company C takes out a 25 year non-cancellable lease of premises in the centre of a major town where
land values are high. There are upward-only rent reviews every 5 years. It is a modern building that may
1632 Chapter 23
have a remaining economic life of 35 years (or perhaps more, as the building has a fabric life of 60 years)
and the land is clearly valuable to the lessor, who will want a reasonable return from it over the lease
term. In this case the interest in the building may or may not be a finance lease and the lessee’s leasehold
interest in the land is not insignificant. Company C will have to undertake a valuation exercise to
determine the allocation of minimum lease payments between the land and building elements of the
lease in order to determine whether or not it has finance or operating leases over the land and buildings.
In some circumstances it may be unclear whether the lessee has a finance or operating
lease over land and buildings. In such cases it will probably be necessary to obtain the
help of a valuation expert.
There are four elements that need to be taken into account in the apportionment: the
value within the lease of the buildings and the land, and the residual value of both
buildings and land. In the UK, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors issued
guidance that analyses the apportionments based on these elements for lease
classification under IFRSs, which could be of more general interest.8 The principal steps
are as follows:
(a) assess the freehold value of the land and buildings;
(b) apportion the freehold value between the value within the lease and the residual
(reversionary) value;
(c) apportion the freehold value between land and buildings by calculating the value
of one or other interest (usually, in practice, the building element) and deducting
this from the value obtained in (b) to obtain the other;
(d) apportion the value of the buildings element calculated at (c) between the residual
and the value within the lease;
(e) the value within the lease (b) can now be allocated between the buildings element
(calculated at (d)) and the land element ((b) less (d)); and
(f)
apportion minimum lease payment between land and buildings in the ratio in (e) above.
This methodology makes it possible to calculate the implicit interest rate separately for
the building as all elements needed for the calculation are known (fair value of the
building, value of its residual and an appropriate proportion of the rentals paid).9
3.3.3
Leases and investment properties
IAS 17 requires leases to be separated into land and building components, subject to this
being possible or the land element being immaterial. If the lessee’s interest is an
investment property carried at fair value in accordance with IAS 40 (see Chapter 19
at 2.1), there is no requirement to separately measure the land and buildings elements
of the lease for the purpose of lease classification. [IAS 17.18]. This is because any
property interest held by a lessee under an operating lease and classified as an
investment property using the fair value model under IAS 40 must be accounted for as
if it were a finance lease. [IAS 17.19].
If the lessee has classified a property interest held under an operating lease as if it were
held under a finance lease, as permitted by IAS 40 (see Chapter 19 at 2.1), it must apply
the fair value model and it must continue to do so even if subsequent changes in
circumstances mean that the property interest is no longer an investment property to
the lessee. IAS 17 gives two examples:
Leases (IAS 17) 1633
(a) the lessee occupies the property, in which case it is transferred to owner-occupied
property at fair value at the date of change of use; or
(b) the lessee grants a sublease over substantially all of its property interest to an
unrelated third party. It will treat the sublease as a finance lease to the third party
even though the interest may well be accounted for as an operating lease by that
party. [IAS 17.19].
In some arrangements, a developer may acquire a headlease over land and sell its rights
under that same headlease. In these circumstances the developer may apply an IAS 40
analysis and treat the transaction as a purchase and sale of the same investment
property. However, this does depend on the disposal in substance of the same asset as
the one that has been acquired.
Further discussion about investment properties and leases is included in Chapter 19.
3.4 Defined
terms
3.4.1
Inception and commencement of the lease
The standard distinguishes between the inception of the lease (when leases are
classified) and the commencement of the lease term (when recognition takes place).
The inception of the lease is the earlier of the date of the lease agreement and the date
of commitment of the parties to the principal terms of the lease. This is the date on
which a lease is classified as a finance or operating lease and, for finance leases, the date
at which the amounts to be recognised at commencement are determined. [IAS 17.4]. The
commencement of the lease term is the date on which the lessee is entitled to exercise
its right to use the leased asset and is the date of initial recognition of the assets,
liabilities, income and expenses of the lease in the financial statements. [IAS 17.4]. This
means that the entity makes an initial calculation of the assets and liabilities under a
finance lease at inception of the lease but does not recognise these in the financial
statements until the commencement date, if this is later. These amounts may in some
circumstances be revised.
It is not uncommon for these two dates to be different, especially if the asset is under
construction. Lease payments may be adjusted for changes in the lessor’s costs during
the period between inception and commencement. The lease may allow for changes in
respect of costs of construction, acquisition costs, changes in the lessor’s financing costs
and any other factor, such as changes in general price levels, during the construction
period. Changes to the lease payments as a result of such events are deemed to take
place at inception of the lease, i.e. are taken into account in establishing, at inception,
whether it is a finance or operating lease. [IAS 17.5]. In other words, if the final cost of the
asset, and hence its fair value, is not known until after the date of inception, hindsight
is used to establish that fair value.
The fair value may be known at inception but payment delayed until commencement,
which may happen with large but routinely constructed assets such as aircraft or railway
locomotives. The lease liability will increase between the date of inception and the date
of commencement, taking account of payments made and the interest rate implicit in
the lea
se (see 3.4.5 below). Although IAS 17 does not address this, the lessee will add the
increase in the liability until the commencement date to the asset. It is not a finance
1634 Chapter 23
cost on the liability (no liability is recognised prior to commencement) and nor need it
be an expense. It is not appropriate to recognise at commencement the liability that was
calculated at inception as that would change the interest rate implicit in the lease.
The standard also considers what will happen if the lease terms are changed so radically
(but without entering into a new lease agreement) that it would have been classified in
a different way, e.g. it would have been a finance lease instead of an operating lease.
Such changes could happen at any stage during the lease (see 3.2.3 above) but if they
happen in the period between inception and commencement, the lease will be
classified at inception in accordance with the revised terms as if they had existed as at
that date. [IAS 17.13]. Accounting for modifications is discussed at 6 below.
3.4.2 Fair
value
Fair value is defined as the amount for which an asset could be exchanged or a liability
settled, between knowledgeable, willing parties in an arm’s length transaction. [IAS 17.4].
In practice, the transaction price, i.e. the purchase price of the asset that is the subject
of the lease, will be its fair value, unless there is evidence to the contrary. IFRS 13 does
not apply because IAS 17 uses ‘fair value’ in a way that differs in some respects from the
definition in the IFRS. [IAS 17.6A]. As a result, paragraph 6 of IFRS 13 prior to the effective
date of IFRS 16 noted that the measurement and disclosure requirements of IFRS 13 do
not apply to leasing transactions in scope of IAS 17.
3.4.3 Minimum
lease
payments
The minimum lease payments are the payments over the lease term that the lessee is or
can be required to make, excluding contingent rent, costs for services and taxes to be
International GAAP® 2019: Generally Accepted Accounting Practice under International Financial Reporting Standards Page 322