Lessee financial reporting will be significantly affected by a new IFRS lease accounting standard that will be effective from 1 January 2019. The new rules will affect almost all leases of movable and immovable assets save for certain leases such as leases to explore for or use minerals, oil, natural gas or similar non-regenerative resources

Corporates often choose to lease long term assets instead of buying them for a number of reasons – there may be tax benefits to leasing the asset and not buying it and leases offer more flexibility in terms of adjusting for technology and capacity needs.

A recently published new IFRS lease standard may have an