Hi, from reading the CFAI curriculum, it seems as operating leases must now appear on the balance sheet of the lessee, but one of the quiz question states that it is used as an off-balance sheet financing technique. Could someone please help me shed some light on this?
Thank you
It could be an older quiz question that is still floating around since the change is still fairly recent. But lord knows I am not the accounting guru on AF.
As I understand it, while there are still differences between operating and capital lease entries on the Income Statement and the Statement of Cash Flows, both types of leases now similarly appear on the Balance Sheet under GAAP and IFRS.
If an accountant wants to chime in I will defer to their answer. But I’d wager it’s an older quiz question that resurfaced. Because operating leases until very recently were off balance sheet items.
Cheers - good luck on your exams - you got this 
That’s what I thought, thank you! I just wish these mistakes could be removed as there is already so much stuff to know, and these mistakes just mix everything up for a lot of people.
None of us are perfect - I sure am not - and the CFA exam prep materials are quite voluminous. Sometimes the sheer volume of exam materials coupled with the constant updates in industry rules or accidental typos means even official/paid resources occasionally miss curating/updating/correcting things. My 2020 Schweser materials had key formula errors. The CFA official mocks sometimes have typos or mistakes in them. This exam is one bad mutha👍
The key is to keep doing exactly what you’re doing and figuring things out for yourself. Because on game day you then will have an edge over folks who aren’t looking at it as deeply as you are. With the reduced number of questions, the margin for error has decreased so the curious deep-thinkers may have some edge over folks who don’t have as much time or interest to spot little details or typos in things.
Cheers - good luck - you got this👍