IFRIC 4 Determining whether an Arrangement contains a Lease
Last EU endorsed/ amended on 03.11.2008
References
| • | IAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors | |
| • | IAS 16 | Property, Plant and Equipment (as revised in 2003) |
| • | IAS 17 | Leases (as revised in 2003) |
| • | IAS 38 | Intangible Assets (as revised in 2004) |
Background
1An entity may enter into an arrangement, comprising a transaction or a series of related transactions, that does not take the legal form of a lease but conveys a right to use an asset (eg an item of property, plant or equipment) in return for a payment or series of payments. Examples of arrangements in which one entity (the supplier) may convey such a right to use an asset to another entity (the purchaser), often together with related services, include:
•outsourcing arrangements (eg the outsourcing of the data processing functions of an entity).
•arrangements in the telecommunications industry, in which suppliers of network capacity enter into contracts to provide purchasers with rights to capacity.
•take-or-pay and similar contracts, in which purchasers must make specified payments regardless of whether they take delivery of the contracted products or services (eg a take-or-pay contract to acquire substantially all of the output of a supplier’s power generator).
2This Interpretation provides guidance for determining whether such arrangements are, or contain, leases that should be accounted for in accordance with IAS 17. It does not provide guidance for determining how such a lease should be classified under that Standard.
3In some arrangements, the underlying asset that is the subject of the lease is a portion of a larger asset. This Interpretation does not address how to determine when a portion of a larger asset is itself the underlying asset for the purposes of applying IAS 17. Nevertheless, arrangements in which the underlying asset would represent a unit of account in either IAS 16 or IAS 38 are within the scope of this Interpretation.
Scope
4This Interpretation does not apply to arrangements that are, or contain, leases excluded from the scope of IAS 17.
Issues
5The issues addressed in this Interpretation are:
(a)how to determine whether an arrangement is, or contains, a lease as defined in IAS 17;
(b)when the assessment or a reassessment of whether an arrangement is, or contains, a lease should be made; and
(c)if an arrangement is, or contains, a lease, how the payments for the lease should be separated from payments for any other elements in the arrangement.
Consensus
Determining whether an arrangement is, or contains, a lease
6 Determining whether an arrangement is, or contains, a lease shall be based on the substance of the arrangement and requires an assessment of whether:
(a)fulfilment of the arrangement is dependent on the use of a specific asset or assets (the asset); and
(b)the arrangement conveys a right to use the asset.
Fulfilment of the arrangement is dependent on the use of a specific asset
7Although a specific asset may be explicitly identified in an arrangement, it is not the subject of a lease if fulfilment of the arrangement is not dependent on the use of the specified asset. For example, if the supplier is obliged to deliver a specified quantity of goods or services and has the right and ability to provide those goods or services using other assets not specified in the arrangement, then fulfilment of the arrangement is not dependent on the specified asset and the arrangement does not contain a lease. A warranty obligation that permits or requires the substitution of the same or similar assets when the specified asset is not operating properly does not preclude lease treatment. In addition, a contractual provision (contingent or otherwise) permitting or requiring the supplier to substitute other assets for any reason on or after a specified date does not preclude lease treatment before the date of substitution.
8An asset has been implicitly specified if, for example, the supplier owns or leases only one asset with which to fulfil the obligation and it is not economically feasible or practicable for the supplier to perform its obligation through the use of alternative assets.
Arrangement conveys a right to use the asset
9An arrangement conveys the right to use the asset if the arrangement conveys to the purchaser (lessee) the right to control the use of the underlying asset. The right to control the use of the underlying asset is conveyed if any one of the following conditions is met:
(a)The purchaser has the ability or right to operate the asset or direct others to operate the asset in a manner it determines while obtaining or controlling more than an insignificant amount of the output or other utility of the asset.
(b)The purchaser has the ability or right to control physical access to the underlying asset while obtaining or controlling more than an insignificant amount of the output or other utility of the asset.
(c)Facts and circumstances indicate that it is remote that one or more parties other than the purchaser will take more than an insignificant amount of the output or other utility that will be produced or generated by the asset during the term of the arrangement, and the price that the purchaser will pay for the output is neither contractually fixed per unit of output nor equal to the current market price per unit of output as of the time of delivery of the output.
Assessing or reassessing whether an arrangement is, or contains,
a lease
10The assessment of whether an arrangement contains a lease shall be made at the inception of the arrangement, being the earlier of the date of the arrangement and the date of commitment by the parties to the principal terms of the arrangement, on the basis of all of the facts and circumstances. A reassessment of whether the arrangement contains a lease after the inception of the arrangement shall be made only if any one of the following conditions is met:
(a) There is a change in the contractual terms, unless the change only renews or extends the
arrangement.
(b)A renewal option is exercised or an extension is agreed to by the parties to the arrangement, unless the term of the renewal or extension had initially been included in the lease term in accordance with paragraph 4 of IAS 17. A renewal or extension of the arrangement that does not include modification of any of the terms in the original arrangement before the end of the term of the original arrangement shall be evaluated under paragraphs 6–9 only with respect to the renewal or extension period.
(c)There is a change in the determination of whether fulfilment is dependent on a specified asset.
(d)There is a substantial change to the asset, for example a substantial physical change to property, plant or equipment.
11A reassessment of an arrangement shall be based on the facts and circumstances as of the date of reassessment, including the remaining term of the arrangement. Changes in estimate (for example, the estimated amount of output to be delivered to the purchaser or other potential purchasers) would not trigger a reassessment. If an arrangement is reassessed and is determined to contain a lease (or not to contain a lease), lease accounting shall be applied (or cease to apply) from:
(a)in the case of (a), (c) or (d) in paragraph 10, when the change in circumstances giving rise to the reassessment occurs;
(b)in the case of (b) in paragraph 10, the inception of the renewal or extension period.
Separating payments for the lease from other payments
12If an arrangement contains a lease, the parties to the arrangement shall apply the requirements of IAS 17 to the lease element of the arrangement, unless exempted from those requirements in accordance with paragraph 2 of IAS 17. Accordingly, if an arrangement contains a lease, that lease shall be classified as a finance lease or an operating lease in accordance with paragraphs 7–19 of IAS 17. Other elements of the arrangement not within the scope of IAS 17 shall be accounted for in accordance with other Standards.
13For the purpose of applying the requirements of IAS 17, payments and other consideration required by the arrangement shall be separated at the inception of the arrangement or upon a reassessment of the arrangement into those for the lease and those for other elements on the basis of their relative fair values. The minimum lease payments as defined in paragraph 4 of IAS 17 include only payments for the lease (ie the right to use the asset) and exclude payments for other elements in the arrangement (eg for services and the cost of inputs).
14In some cases, separating the payments for the lease from payments for other elements in the arrangement will require the purchaser to use an estimation technique. For example, a purchaser may estimate the lease payments by reference to a lease agreement for a comparable asset that contains no other elements, or by estimating the payments for the other elements in the arrangement by reference to comparable agreements and then deducting these payments from the total payments under the arrangement.
15If a purchaser concludes that it is impracticable to separate the payments reliably, it shall:
(a)in the case of a finance lease, recognise an asset and a liability at an amount equal to the fair value of the underlying asset that was identified in paragraphs 7 and 8 as the subject of the lease. Subsequently the liability shall be reduced as payments are made and an imputed finance charge on the liability recognised using the purchaser’s incremental borrowing rate of interest.1
(b)in the case of an operating lease, treat all payments under the arrangement as lease payments for the purposes of complying with the disclosure requirements of IAS 17, but
(i)disclose those payments separately from minimum lease payments of other arrangements that do not include payments for non-lease elements, and
(ii)state that the disclosed payments also include payments for non-lease elements in the arrangement.
Effective date
16 An entity shall apply this Interpretation for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2006. Earlier application is encouraged. If an entity applies this Interpretation for a period beginning before 1 January 2006, it shall disclose that fact.
Transition
17IAS 8 specifies how an entity applies a change in accounting policy resulting from the initial application of an Interpretation. An entity is not required to comply with those requirements when first applying this Interpretation. If an entity uses this exemption, it shall apply paragraphs 6–9 of the Interpretation to arrangements existing at the start of the earliest period for which comparative information under IFRSs is presented on the basis of facts and circumstances existing at the start of that period.
1 ie the lessee’s incremental borrowing rate of interest as defined in paragraph 4 of IAS 17.