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.
Mark S. Bonta is the Executive Director of the Recovery Jobs Foundation, an initiative focused on reintegrating individuals in recovery into the workforce. With 20 years of experience as a Plant Director and 6 years of experience as a recovery-friendly employer, he pioneered the New Hampshire Recovery Friendly Workplace Initiative (NH-RFWI) as one of the first RFW's in the nation. Mark's leadership has been recognized with several awards, including the 2022 Littleton Area Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year Award and the 2023 White Mountains Community College President's Community Partner Award. Currently formalizing the Recovery Jobs Foundation, he also serves on the NH-RFWI Advisory Council, and as Secretary of the Florida Recovery-Friendly Workplace Coalition.
Alex Konanykhin is the co-founder and CEO of Unicoin.
Monica S. Simon is head of legal at Forge Global and has over 15 years of experience as a securities lawyer in both public and private markets.
Before joining Forge, she was deputy general counsel at Carta, and general counsel for Carta's broker-dealer entity. Prior to that, Simon was an attorney with Willkie Farr, where she advised registered broker-dealers and investment advisors, and assistant general counsel at Goldman Sachs, where she covered equities sales and trading and was counsel for the Goldman Alternative Trading System.
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:
