The release of the Exposure Draft Leases by the Financial Accounting Standards Board in August 2010 has brought about much discussion regarding the proposed treatment for lease accounting. The changes proposed include the capitalization of operating leases by lessees, which are currently regarded as off-balance sheet financing. When the proposed changes take place, industries that have substantial off-balance sheet leases currently, such as the retail industry, will face significant adjustments for assets and liabilities, as well as changes in their income statement. This paper quantifies these changes in the retail industry and examines the effect of these changes on each firm’s current debt covenant agreements.

When standards for financial reporting are amended, potential for change in the appearance of financial position for companies reporting under those standards arises. Currently standards set forth by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) allow for two methods of reporting lease obligations on the financial statements. The first of these methods is the operating method, which allows lease payments to be expensed within the period they are incurred and only a decrease in cash or an increase in an account payable is recognized on the balance sheet. The second method is the capital method, which requires the present value of the future lease payments to be recognized on the balance sheet as an asset and a corresponding liability. Both are reduced annually through depreciation and lease payments respectively. The FASB has recently proposed discontinuing the operating method of reporting a lease obligation and allowing only for the capital method to be used. The objective of this study is to examine some of the changes in appearance of financial position that might be brought on by this potential change in reporting standards. The airline industry has been selected to illustrate the effects of capitalizing future operating lease payments on the balance sheet. These future payments under operating leases for companies within the industry are capitalized using two different methods of depreciation. The companies are then ranked in order of proximity to an industry average for eight well known financial ratios. The rankings for each treatment on a given ratio are compared and differences between the expensed ranking and each capitalized ranking are measured and discussed.

The main purpose of this diploma thesis is to provide a general overview of the three types of fixed assets financing -- long-term bank loan, capital lease and operating lease; their general description, definition and typology, mainly from the accounting standpoint of view in appliance with the International Financial Reporting Standards. Close attention is also paid to their comparison and outlining their main qualitative and quantitative benefits and disadvantages. The last part of the thesis includes a case study that implements quantitative comparison of the three types of assets financing and their accounting according to the theoretical material contained in the preceding chapters.

The aim of this thesis is to create a comprehensive view of financial reporting of lease contracts from lessee's and lessor's point of view in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP). The thesis is divided into four parts. The first part is devoted to basic characteristics of the lease and its reporting according to the currently applicable standards - IAS 17 and ASC 840. Content of the next part is Convergence of Accounting Standards. Second half of the thesis focuses on the Exposure Draft and Comment Letters.