Exempt short-term and low-value leases

FRS 102 lets you choose not to recognise a short-term lease, or a lease of a low-value asset. Until now Lease102 had the ticks on the lease form but they did nothing.

Ticking either now stops the lease being measured: no right-of-use asset, no liability, no schedule, and anything already accumulated is removed. Its payments become an expense spread evenly over the term instead. The lease keeps a badge in your list so it is never mistaken for a recognised one, and clearing the tick reverses it.

The Disclosure Notes report gains the short-term and low-value expenses separately, with a lease that is both counted only once, plus the commitments outstanding in the three bands the standard asks for. If you have marked none, the report says so plainly rather than showing a row of zeros.

Worth knowing when you apply them: the short-term exemption is a policy choice for a whole class of asset, whilst low value is judged lease by lease. Vehicles, property, production equipment, boats and aircraft are never low-value, whatever they cost.