Capturing the benefits of operating and synthetic leases

Here's an important leasing strategy that CEOs, CFOs, and treasurers should know about. By applying constructive lease capitalization on the operating leases of several firms, the authors show that companies can hide many liabilities from financial reporting. And they can also enhance net income, retained earnings, and key financial ratios —all by reporting leases as operating leases instead of capital leases. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.