TNAG-1053-FCO40-1303-China-and-Hong-Kong-Working-Group-1981 — Page 25

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

(a) A UK lessor receives favourable tax allowances on the purchase of UK manufactured equipment. Aircraft, ships and containers bought for leasing to overseas lessees qualify for 100% first year writing down allowance. Other plant and equipment bought for leasing to overseas lessees qualifies for writing down allowances at 25% on the reducing balance

basis. These allowances offer some opportunity for lessors with UK tax liability to reduce the cost of the goods

concerned to overseas purchasers.

(b)

Rentals are structured on an annuity basis where payments

are of an equal size. This can give a short term cash flow

advantage to the lessee compared with higher early interest

payments associated with a straightforward sale on credit terms. However the advantage may in some cases be minimal, so

prospective leases should be considered on a case-by-case basis;

(c) For presentational reasons the Chinese might prefer to

lease goods rather than purchase them on oredit in order to

avoid appearing to be substantially in debt to the West.

DISADVANTAGES OF LEASING

Suuria ertuteavitado Szkatutaona A

B...

6 Leasing is not a straightforward proposition, however, and there.

is one fundamental draw-back which will limit its attractiveness to

the Chinese. Despite the advantages quoted in 5 above, the real cost of leasing is unlikely to prove cheaper over the life of a particular

project than the corresponding sales contract. The initial lower

payments associated with leasing are offset by much higher payments

in later years to give a discounted cash flow (or real) payment

that is normally at least equal to the credit payment. On top of

this of course must also come the margins of the leasing company

2

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