Leasing. What it is? Miscellaneous aspects

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Every CFO knows the concept of "leasing". What is it, and when did this operation appear? In international practice, there is no single interpretation of this term. It is believed that it refers to the long-term rental of expensive equipment on certain conditions (how does leasing differ from, for example, rental or short-term rental). It is assumed that the first such relationships appeared in ancient Sumer, but they developed in the form of leasing operations in the USA and Europe in the second half of the twentieth century.

In the Russian legislation in the mid-1990s, the term "leasing" was also designated. What is it from the point of view of the Civil Code adopted in 1996? According to article No. 665 of the second part of the Civil Code, a financial lease (leasing) is a set of relations in which the lessor, at the direction of the tenant or at his own discretion, buys certain property, which subsequently transfers to the tenant for use and possession for a specified period of time.

Any objects can bepurchase under a scheme involving leasing? What is it in terms of the subject of the transaction? In accordance with article No. 666 of the Civil Code, only items that are depreciated over long periods of time (non-consumable things), such as real estate, equipment, machinery, can be transferred to financial lease. The exception is natural formations, land plots and objects, the circulation of which is limited by any laws.

What regulations still govern leasing? What it is, you can also learn from federal law No. 164-FZ (adopted in 1998, October 29). It gives an interpretation similar to the definitions of the Civil Code, and offers detailed formulations for the entire procedure for conducting operations. For example, article No. 4 of the law specifies that both a resident of the Russian Federation and a non-resident can be a seller of leasing objects, a lessor or a lessee.

The leasing agreement is mandatory in writing between the lessor and the lessee. However, in schemes of this kind, other persons are quite often encountered - insurance companies and banks. The former are engaged in minimizing various risks associated with the supply and operation of equipment. And the latter are often the founders of leasing companies that receive funds from banks to carry out operations in the form of loans with favorable interest rates. The contract may provide for such an option for terminating the relationship whenthe lessee acquires ownership of the property upon the expiration of the contract and the fulfillment of certain conditions (the entire amount of the cost of the equipment is repaid in the form of lease payments, etc.).

You can buy expensive objects on lease in the foreign and domestic markets. For this case, the corresponding types of financial lease are distinguished. If all parties to the agreement are residents, then the lease is recognized as internal, and if one of the parties is a non-resident, it is recognized as external.