Jones Lang LaSalle today announced it has launched a website – Lease Accounting Changes, to deliver leading-edge strategies, tools, and information to help corporations worldwide navigate the upcoming changes in global lease accounting treatment.
Designed to improve transparency and eliminate off-balance sheet obligations, the new regulations being introduced by the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and its counterpart, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) will fundamentally alter the impact of leases on organizations’ income statements and balance sheets.
In a recent Jones Lang LaSalle poll of corporate real estate executives in Asia Pacific, 70% said that they are unaware or unprepared for the changes. In addition, 42% said that their team does not have the financial knowledge it needs to manage the impacts to their real estate portfolios.
The new website will enable companies to better understand how these changes will affect them, as well as how to develop a plan for preparing for “Day 1” impact by integrating and aligning their strategic planning and portfolio strategy.
The new rules will affect all companies reporting under either International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or US GAAP including all US-based companies, most European Union-based companies and in Asia Pacific, any company based in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan or Korea where conformity to IFRS is or will be followed.
This means that even if a country does not adopt IFRS, multi-national companies operating in that country will still be affected by the changes. Any company that wants access to European or US capital markets will also need to adopt the standards.
