(a) When accounting for finance leases, accountants prefer to overlook legal form in favour of commercial substance.

Required:

Discuss the above statement in the light of the requirements of IAS 17 Leases.

(b) State briefly how you would distinguish between a finance lease and an operating lease.

(c) Smarty plc finalises its accounts annually on 31 March. It depreciates its machinery at 20% per annum on cost and adopts the Rule of 78 for allocating finance charges among different accounting periods. On 1 August 20X7 it acquired machinery on a finance lease on the following agreement:

(i) a lease rent of 500 per month is payable for 36 months commencing from the date of acquisition;

(ii) cost of repairs and insurance are to be met by the lessee;

(iii) on completion of the primary period the lease may be extended for a further period of three years, at the lessees option, for a peppercorn rent. The cash price of the machine is 15,000.

Required:

(1) Set out how all ledger accounts reflecting these transactions will appear in each of the four accounting periods 20X7/8, 20X8/9, 20X9/Y0 and 20Y0/Y1.

(2) Show the statement of comprehensive income entries for the year ended 31 March 20X8 and statement of financial position extracts as at that date.