Granting lease incentives is a common way to encourage a new lessee to sign up to a new lease contract and fill vacant premises. When accounting for lease incentives in accordance with IFRS 16 ‘Leases’ from a lessee perspective, questions may arise in how to identify a lease incentive and when the accounting treatment changes depending on how the lease incentive is granted.
Under IFRS 16 ‘Leases’, discount rates are used to determine the present value of the lease payments used to measure a lessee’s lease liability.
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has published ‘Plan Amendment, Curtailment or Settlement (Amendments to IAS 19)’. The amendments require companies to use updated actuarial assumptions to determine pension expenses following changes to a defined benefit pension plan.
Both IAS 1 and IAS 10 suggest that a departure from the going concern basis is required when specified circumstances exist. Neither Standard however provides any details of an alternative basis of preparation and how it may differ from the going concern basis. Entities will therefore need to develop an appropriate basis of preparation. This IFRS Viewpoint addresses some of the issues that entities will face when doing so.
Loan agreements often include covenants that, if breached by the borrower, permit the lender to demand repayment before the loan’s normal maturity date. In response to a borrower’s request, lenders may decide to voluntarily waive some or all of the rights they acquire as a result of a breach. This IFRS Viewpoint provides guidance on the classification of long-term loans payable as either current or non-current when covenants are present.