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.
Hawzien Gebremedhin has been the diversity, equity and inclusion leader at Plante Moran for two years. Her family immigrated to the United States from the Tigray region of Ethiopia when she was a one-year-old, and she and her sister recently co-founded a nonprofit called Tigray Action Committee that is committed to bringing awareness and action to the Tigray Genocide. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado and holds a Diversity & Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University.
Corey Wilmer is an undergraduate research assistant at the Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth, North Dakota State University.
Oudom Hean is an assistant professor of finance at North Dakota State University and a faculty scholar at the Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth.
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:
