VALUATION OF FINANCIAL LEASE CONTRACTS: A NOTE

provide a valuable contribution to the leasing literature. The authors rigorously derive a simple formula for lease valuation. In addition, they examine the impact on their analysis of different tax rates and of different amounts of debt which may be displaced by the lease. This note makes two points. First, we present a simplified derivation of the valuation formula of MDB. This can be expressed visually, which gives it a definite pedagogical advantage over their recursive algebraic derivation. Second, we generalise the analysis to include the case of a company which is currently in a non-tax paying position, but which expects to resume paying taxes at some (specified) future date. A significant number of companies (both in the US and in the UK) are in this position. We find empirically that the attraction of leasing depends critically on the length of such a non-tax paying period.