Note L. Commitments

TJX is committed under long-term leases related to its continuing operations for the rental of real estate and fixtures and equipment. Most of TJX’s leases are store operating leases with ten-year terms and options to extend for one or more five-year periods in the U.S. and Canada and ten to fifteen year terms in Europe, some of which have options to extend. Many of the Company’s leases contain escalation clauses and we have the right to terminate some of the leases before the expiration date under specified circumstances and some with specified payments. In addition, TJX is generally required to pay insurance, real estate taxes and other operating expenses including, in some cases, rentals based on a percentage of sales. These expenses in the aggregate were approximately one-third of the total minimum rent in fiscal 2016, fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2014 and are not included in the table below.

The following is a schedule of future minimum lease payments for continuing operations as of January 30, 2016:


In thousands	Operating Leases
Fiscal Year
2017	$	1,368,050
2018		1,273,888
2019		1,150,172
2020		1,005,127
2021		845,910
Later years		2,354,674
Total future minimum lease payments	$	7,997,821

Rental expense under operating leases for continuing operations amounted to $1,365.6 million for fiscal 2016, $1,321.6 million for fiscal 2015 and $1,238.2 million for fiscal 2014. Rental expense includes contingent rent and is reported net of sublease income. Contingent rent paid was $15.7 million in fiscal 2016, $15.2 million in fiscal 2015 and $15.7 million in fiscal 2014. Sublease income was $0.9 million in fiscal 2016, $0.8 million in fiscal 2015 and $0.9 million in fiscal 2014.

As of January 30, 2016 we have two lease agreements for facilities that resulted in TJX being considered the owner of the property for accounting purposes (see Lease Accounting within Note A). One of the leases is for our home office facility in Canada which did not meet the sale-leaseback criteria and is therefore being accounted for as a financing transaction. The other lease relates to a facility under construction in Europe. Upon completion, a sale-leaseback analysis will be performed to determine if the Company should record a sale to remove the assets and related obligation and record the lease as either an operating or capital lease obligation. The assets related to these properties are included in “land and buildings” and the related liabilities of $85.2 million are included in “other long-term liabilities.”

TJX had outstanding letters of credit totaling $29.3 million as of January 30, 2016 and $42.9 million as of January 31, 2015. Letters of credit are issued by TJX primarily for the purchase of inventory.