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The effective date of the new lease accounting standard (ASU 2016-02, Leases (Topic 842)) for private companies is now January 2022 (see ASU 2019-10). Now is the time to consider how you can prepare for the adoption of the new standard.
The largest change as a result of the new lease accounting standard is the recognition of right-of-use assets and lease liabilities by lessees for leases classified as operating leases. Capital leases will be a thing of the past, and all leases will now be classified as either an operating lease or a financing lease. We recommend you first consider the quantity of leases your organization has in order to gain an understanding of the scope and needs of your organization. A lot of time and resources may be required to extract the information needed from these leases.
This new standard will require you to analyze your contracts, identify leases, and consider items such as lease and non-lease components, lease term, variable and fixed lease payments, and options to extend or terminate in order to determine lease classification.
There are many factors that must be considered to determine the initial and subsequent measurement of the lease payments. This could be more complicated than you initially think. Inputs such as lease payments, discount rate, and initial direct costs will need to be determined, and a present value calculation is required. You will need to monitor changes to leases, such as lease modification, in order to determine if remeasurement is necessary.
As with most new standards, additional disclosures will be required to provide more insight for the users, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Start thinking about transition and adoption of Topic 842
Although there will be minor financial statement changes from the lessor side, lessors may find they need to change how they structure their leases in order to attract and retain customers.
DGC’s Technical Accounting Advisory team can guide you through this process by assisting with:
For additional information about how the new lease accounting standard will impact your business, and what you can do to prepare, contact a member of your DGC client service team or Donald Butler, CPA at 781-937-5137 / dbutler@dgccpa.com. Also, be sure to review DGC’s list of recommended first steps when creating your plan for the adoption of the new lease accounting standard.
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