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Major reforms to global lease accounting

The IASB has published IFRS 16 ‘Leases’ completing its long-running project on lease accounting.

This special edition of IFRS News series explains the key features of the new Standard and provides practical insights into its application and impact.

IFRS 16 represents the first major overhaul of lease accounting for over 30 years. The IASB has long believed that IAS 17’s split between operating and finance leases is flawed, and has resulted in too much structuring and off-balance sheet financing. The IASB’s solution has remained the same throughout the project: to do away with the operating versus finance lease distinction and account for all leases ‘on-balance sheet’.