Recent Accounting Pronouncements

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

New Accounting Pronouncements and Changes in Accounting Principles [Abstract]

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

Recently Adopted Accounting Standards

Lease Accounting

The Company adopted ASU 2016-02, "Leases (Topic 842)” as of January 1, 2019, using the modified retrospective method. As discussed further in the “Franchise Arrangements” and “Leasing Arrangements” footnotes, the Company is engaged in a significant amount of leasing activity, both from a lessor and a lessee perspective.

The Company has elected the package of practical expedients, which allows the Company to retain the classification of existing leases; therefore, there was minimal initial impact in the Consolidated Statement of Income, and no cumulative adjustment to retained earnings was recognized upon adoption. As the Company enters into new ground leases or as existing ground leases are modified, many of these may be reclassified from operating classification to financing classification, which will change the timing and classification of a portion of lease expense between Operating income and Interest expense. It is not possible to quantify the impact at this time, due to the unknown timing of new leases and lease modifications, however the Company does not expect the impact to be material to any given year. The Company has also made an accounting policy election to keep leases with an initial term of 12 months or less off of the balance sheet. These types of leases primarily relate to leases of office equipment, and are not significant in comparison to the Company’s overall lease portfolio. Payments related to those leases will continue to be recognized in the Consolidated Statement of Income on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

The Company has certain leases subject to index adjustments. Historically, the Company has calculated and disclosed future minimum payments for these leases using the index as of the end of the reporting period. As part of the transition, the Company used the index in effect at transition for adoption of Topic 842 in its disclosure of future minimum lease payments and its calculation of the lease

liability. For leases entered into after January 1, 2019, the index at lease inception date will be used to calculate the lease liability until lease modification.

The Company recorded a Right of Use Asset and Lease Liability on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet of $12.5 billion upon adoption. The Lease Liability reflects the present value of the Company's estimated future minimum lease payments over the lease term, which includes options that are reasonably assured of being exercised, discounted using a collateralized incremental borrowing rate. The impact of the new lease guidance is non-cash in nature, therefore, it does not affect the Company’s cash flows.