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.
Michael A. Stachowiak is the chief revenue officer at Enrollify.
Gregory V. Kanarian is an investment strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions representing the firm's direct indexing strategies.
Prior to joining the investment strategies group, Greg was a portfolio consultant at Natixis for 12 years. Previously, he was a portfolio consultant with Deutsche Bank and a financial planning associate with Pillar Financial Advisors. He is a CFA charterholder and is FINRA Series 7 and 66 licensed.
Yakir Golan is the CEO and co-founder of Kovrr. He started his career in the Israeli intelligence forces. Following his military service, he acquired multidisciplinary experience in software and hardware design, development and product management. For the past few years, he has focused on bringing cyber risk management solutions based on advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence to the market. Yakir holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology and an MBA from IE Business School, Madrid, Spain.
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:
