The Advantages of Leasing

Leasing brings six major advantages, and all directly involve the company’s cash flow. Essentially, the advantage to leasing over buying is that there’s usually no large outlay of cash at the beginning of the lease as there is with an outright purchase.

100 percent financing: Many business leases come with 100 percent financing terms, which means no money changes hands at the inception of the lease.
Obsolescence: Another advantage to leasing is working around obsolescence, which means the company anticipates frequently replacing the fixed asset.
Flexibility: Asset flexibility is another leasing advantage. Based on the relationship between the lessor and the lessee, the lease may be for either just a few months or the entire expected life of the asset.
Lower-cost financing: Based on many different variables, a company may be able to utilize tax benefits associated with leasing.
Tax advantages: Separate from any tax benefit a company may gain, lease payments can reduce taxable income in a more appropriate manner than depreciation expense.
Off-balance-sheet financing: Finally, operating leases provide off-the-books (or balance sheet) financing. In other words, the company’s obligation to pay the lease, which is a liability, doesn’t reflect on the balance sheet. This can affect a financial statement user’s evaluation of how solvent the company is because he will be unaware of the debt—hence the importance of footnotes to financial statements.

	Created by dekanola almost 11 years ago

university Managing Real Estate Note on Revision Notes MR, created by dekanola on 10/12/2013.