On January 1, 2008, Seven Wonders Inc. signed a five-year noncancelable lease with Moss Company.
The lease calls for five payments of \($277,409.44\) to be made at the end of each year. The leased asset has a fair value of \($1,200,000\) on January 1, 2008. Seven Wonders cannot renew the lease, there is no bargain purchase option, and ownership of the leased asset reverts to Moss at the lease end. The leased asset has an expected useful life of six years, and Seven Wonders uses straight-line depreciation for financial reporting purposes. Its incremental borrowing rate is 12%. Moss's implicit rate of return on the lease is unknown. Seven Wonders uses a calendar year for financial reporting purposes.
Required:
1. Why must Seven Wonders account for the lease as a capital lease?
2. Prepare an amortization schedule for the lease liability. Round the amount of the initial lease liability at January 1, 2008 to the nearest dollar. Round all amounts in the amortization table to the nearest cent.
3. Make the journal entry to record

(a) the lease as a capital lease on January 1, 2008;

(b) the lease payments on December 31, 2008 and 2009; and

(c) the leased asset’s depreciation in 2008 and 2009.
4, What is the total amount of expense reported on Seven Wonders’ 2008 income statement from the lease? Is this amount the same as, more than, or less than the amount that would have been reported if the lease had been classified as an operating lease? Why?