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.
Kathy Davis, CPA, is a manager in the Tax Advisory Services Department of Anglin Reichmann Armstrong.
She has more than a decade of experience in public accounting, and her focus is retirement planning, estate and gift planning and preparation of complex tax returns. Contact her at kdavis@anglincpa.com.
Vara Kumar is the co-founder and head of R&D at Whatfix. Vara co-founded Whatfix with Khadim Batti in 2014 with the vision of empowering individuals and organizations to work symbiotically with technology to maximize their potential. Based in the US, Vara leads the company's strategy and vision for product development and adoptions, technology development, and innovation – helping accelerate successful integrations for partners and customers. He is passionate about building technology that users love.
Thomas Horan is an associate at Seyfarth Shaw LLP where he advises and defends employers in numerous industries on a range of employment and labor law matters in class actions and individual-plaintiff actions.
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:
