Impact of New Standard "IFRS 16 Leases" on Statement of Financial Position and Key Ratios: A Case Study on an Airline Company in Turkey

Abstract

The studies regarding the changes made related to the accounting for lease have taken its final status with the publication of IFRS16 Lease Standard as a result of a long time and effort in January 2016. The related Standard shall ensure (1) the reporting of all the leases in the same way, (2) the displaying of the unrecorded leases in the financial statements and therefore, (3) the submission of more transparent, correct and comparable information. The purpose of our study is to examine the statement of financial position of the lessee enterprise after the transition to the new financial reporting standard IFRS 16 and the impacts of the change in the basic ratios. For this purpose, the impacts possible to occur in the financial position of an airline company having activities in Turkey as a result of the application of the related standard have been examined. The results of the study show that the reflection of the operating leases on the balance sheet shall cause to significant increases in the assets and liabilities and for this reason; there shall be a significant increase in the ratio of liability/asset and a significant decrease return on asset. Keywords: IFRS16, IAS 17, Operating Leases, Financial Leases, Off Balance Sheet Financing