Accounting Today reported the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) issued an overview of its upcoming lease accounting standard, saying it plans to complete its deliberations on the long-awaited standard this month and to issue the standard later this year.

According to Accounting Today, the standard will require many companies to bring leases onto their balance sheets for the first time, and the document describes the practical effects that will have. In addition, the document describes the differences between the IASB’s leasing standard and the one that the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board is also expected to issue.

Accounting Today reported the IASB and FASB have been working jointly on the Leases project and have reached the same decisions in many areas, the IASB pointed out, including requiring leases to be shown on the balance sheet, how to define a lease and how lease liabilities should be measured. However, there are some differences between the two boards’ models and the document provides an overview of the likely practical effects of these differences, according to Accounting Today.

“Our stakeholders have asked for more details on how the new leases standard will change things in practice,” said IASB chairman Hans Hoogervorst in a statement. “The most important difference is that the new standard will provide a richer set of information for investors than is available today, which, in turn, will aid their decision making. The main change that will be brought about by the new leases standard is an increase in assets and liabilities on the balance sheet for those companies that currently have a large amount of leases off balance sheet, thus improving the transparency of a company’s leverage and asset base.”

To view the full Accounting Today report, click here.

To read more from Monitor’s resident Lease Accounting Project expert, Bill Bosco, click here.