Interaction between Lease Accounting and Asset Accounting

Leased assets differ from regular assets in these ways:

  • They are associated with a lease company that may or may not be the same as the asset company and a lease number.
  • They have assigned a classification that must match the Operating or Finance lease classifications.
  • Operating leases can be tracked as assets, but they have to be non-depreciable or have a zero book basis.
  • More than one asset can be associated with a single lease. The total basis of all the assets must match the lease obligation calculated by the Classification test.
  • You cannot change the book basis of a leased asset. If a lease is retired, then the associated asset becomes a non-leased asset.

    You can adjust the asset as described in the Asset Accounting User Guide.