The Effect of the IFRS 16: Constructive Capitalization of Operating Leases in the Turkish Retailing Sector

Abstract

The new International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 16 issued by the International Accounting Standards Board will significantlychange accounting for leases. The most important issue is that operating leases beyond one year will be capitalized, which means Off-TheBalance Sheet (OBS) financing via operating lease is effectively eliminated. “IFRS 16: Leases” will fundamentally change the way that leasesare accounted for and reported in financial statements. This paper tries to illustrate the impact of IFRS 16 on financial statements andfinancial ratios. The study is an ex ante research, simulating a predicted outcome of the new lease standard, which will be in effect after 1January 2019. For this purpose, this research is applied to the Turkish retailing companies whose shares are publicly traded in the IstanbulStock Exchange. The study uses the constructive capitalization method for these companies. The results indicate that new standard willhave a statistically significant effect on some of the financial ratios tested (debt/asset, debt/equity, return on assets (ROA) and return onequity (ROE)) for 2010 – 2013.