Leasing or lease actually means rent. Contractually leasing is formalized as rental relations; economical essence comes down to sale-and-purchase and credit relations.

The Russian legislation defines leasing as totality of economical and legal relations emerging from fulfilling a lease agreement, including the acquisition of the object of lease (Federal Law of 29.10.1998 # 164-ФЗ). Under a lease agreement the Lessor undertakes to purchase property chosen by the Lessee from the Seller defined by him and grant it to the Lessee for temporary ownership and usage for a fee.

The title to property remains with the Lessor. The agreement might envisage the right of the Lessor to chose the Seller and the property to be purchased.

Any property which is not annihilated while under operation can be the object of lease, including buildings and structures, industrial premises, machinery and equipment, vehicles, office equipment. The law prohibits to lease plots of land, other nature objects and property which are by Federal laws under restricted or special circulation.

Leasing relations can be of two types: either the title to the property is transferred to the Lessee or it remains with the Lessor. Besides we can also define several kinds of leasing, which are usual in foreign practice.
If the agreement envisages rendering any additional services (registration of a vehicle with the Traffic Police, insurance, maintenance and servicing according to the manufacturer's requirements, vehicle repairs, replacement car for the periods of servicing and repairs, etc.) then we can speak about full service leasing, as is accepted internationally. In this case the agreement defines the monthly mileage of the vehicle and the Lessee pays only for actual expenses.

Companies very often prefer this kind of leasing as the company fleet management expenses are fixed for the whole period. You do not have to distract considerable amounts from your turnover for purchasing a car or fleet management.

In operational leasing the title to the object of lease remains with the Lessor. He also bears the risk of the residual value of the car.

Moreover, operational leasing has a number of advantages if compared to purchasing a car:
- no need to distract funds from the turnover in a lump. The Lessee pays fixed monthly instalments, which makes it possible to invest funds in the company development.
- No risks involved. All economical and the residual value risks are born by the Lessor.

With financial leasing the Lessor retains the title to the vehicle during the leasing term.

The Lessee has the right of the ownership and usage. The leased object is accounted and depreciated in the Lessor's books. The title to the object of lease is transferred to the Lessee after the last leasing payment is made, thus the risk of the residual value is saddled with the Lessee.

Irrespective of the type of leasing relations accelerated depreciation (with the coefficient of up to 3) can be applied to the leased property during the leasing term. This makes it possible to completely depreciate the object of lease in the shortest possible time.

Moreover the Lessee pays all the taxes as the object of lease is on his balance.

Suppose you have made your choice of a car and would like to enter into a lease agreement under favourable conditions. To begin with, you should decide upon the following things: what kind of leasing suits you best; what the duration of the contract will be and what down payment you are prepared to make. All the rest is a matter of one phone call. You inform us of your wishes and briefly describe your business. In our turn, we shall advise you of the possibilities of financing the deal and offer a most acceptable for you scheme of leasing.

After you have got and considered offers from several leasing companies, you chose ours as the most attractive. Then we make an appointment to discuss the details of the deal. You will have to fill in the application for leasing, provide us with the necessary papers, and within a week the contract is ready for signing.

After the lease agreement is signed we purchase the object of lease specified in your application. We can offer to insure the vehicle with Ingosstrakh or discuss insuring it in an insurance company you might prefer. To avoid any misunderstanding your representative should be present when we get the vehicle from the Seller. After this (within 3 days, as a rule) we register, insure the car, install additional equipment, if necessary, and transfer the vehicle to you for ownership and usage under a lease agreement.