Lewis Securities Inc. has decided to acquire a new market data and quotation system for

its Richmond home office. The system receives current market prices and other information

from several online data services and then either displays the information on a screen

or stores it for later retrieval by the firms brokers. The system also permits customers to

call up current quotes on terminals in the lobby.

The equipment costs $1,000,000 and, if it were purchased, Lewis could obtain a term

loan for the full purchase price at a 10% interest rate. Although the equipment has a 6-

year useful life, it is classified as a special-purpose computer and therefore falls into the

MACRS 3-year class. If the system were purchased, a 4-year maintenance contract could

be obtained at a cost of $20,000 per year, payable at the beginning of each year. The

equipment would be sold after 4 years, and the best estimate of its residual value is

$200,000. However, because real-time display system technology is changing rapidly, the

actual residual value is uncertain.

As an alternative to the borrow-and-buy plan, the equipment manufacturer

informed Lewis that Consolidated Leasing would be willing to write a 4-year guideline

lease on the equipment, including maintenance, for payments of $260,000 at the

beginning of each year. Lewiss marginal federal-plus-state tax rate is 40%. You have

been asked to analyze the lease-versus-purchase decision and, in the process, to

answer the following questions.

a. (1) Who are the two parties to a lease transaction?

(2) What are the five primary types of leases, and what are their characteristics?

(3) How are leases classified for tax purposes?

(4) What effect does leasing have on a firms balance sheet?

(5) What effect does leasing have on a firms capital structure?