Employees working from home during the coronavirus pandemic claimed some outlandish expenses this year, including pricey exercise bikes, facelifts and private jets.
Emburse, an expense management software company, released a compilation Wednesday of some of the craziest expenses it has seen claimed this year, some of which were actually approved. That included $1,895, which was approved as a contribution for an employee's Peloton Bike under the explanation of “for health and wellness.” On the other hand, a $7,600 expense claim for a facelift was submitted under the category of “repairs and maintenance” but was rejected, despite the pressing need to look one’s best during a Zoom meeting.
Joseph R. Mason is a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and an academic affiliate at the BVA Group. Dr. Mason was previously a professor of finance and the Hermann Moyse, Jr./Louisiana Bankers Association chair of banking at Louisiana State University, a senior financial economist at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. He holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Billy Angelo is the managing partner of Angelo & Associates, a CPA firm focused on businesses in the professional services sector. He has been in the accounting industry since his graduation from the University of Delaware, and currently lives in New Providence, New Jersey with his wife and four children.
Amy Marcum is manager of client implementation at Insperity.
Some expenses weren’t for working from home, but more about getting out of the house safely. An expense claim for a private jet charter costing over $20,000 was submitted and approved under the explanation of “required to limit COVID exposure for international shoots.” Another travel-related expense claim was $2,500 for a helicopter ride, which was not approved.
The $79 expense claim for a dog crate could perhaps be used for travel at some point when that's safer, but in these times it was more plausibly to provide "crate training [for] a new COVID puppy to not run into Zoom meetings."
Below is an infographic produced by Emburse showing this and several other head-scratching claims:
