The principal motive for leasing equipment is cash flow ”the ability to get equipment now without a major one-time expenditure of cash.” This enables the business to better match expenses with revenue and protect against obsolescence.
Other businesses may prefer to lease because their tax situation is such that it cannot benefit from the depreciation. It may also wish to maintain a debt-equity ratio that will attract new investment more easily, and leasing (rather than investment) will accomplish that.
And, those companies engaged in rapidly evolving technological market, use leased equipment under short-term leases permitting it the opportunity to exchange new and better equipment more rapidly than would with ownership of a capital lease.