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.
Donald Moon is a senior associate in Mayer Brown’s Chicago office and a member of the Technology Transactions practice. Donald advises on all types of complex commercial transactions, including those involving IT outsourcing, business process outsourcing, facilities management outsourcing, data center leasing, technology licensing, cloud computing, hosted service agreements, and privacy and security issues.
Brad Peterson is a partner in Mayer Brown’s Chicago office and leads the Technology Transactions practice. Brad has focused his practice for 20 years on helping companies work better with their technology and operations suppliers. In the past five years, he has represented clients in increasing numbers of contracts with digital services providers, including cloud, data analytics, “as a Service” and automated process scopes and cyber security and privacy issues related to those scopes.
Dan Masur is a leader of Mayer Brown’s Technology Transactions practice. Dan has represented national and international clients in a broad range of on-shore, near-shore, and offshore information technology and business process sourcing transactions involving global and niche outsourcing providers, offshore captives and various hybrid structures. His representative information technology transactions include the outsourcing of IT infrastructure services and support, data center services, application development and maintenance, network management and support, help desk/call center services, and telecommunications services. Dan has represented established and emerging companies in many different industries, including insurance, banking, aerospace, defense contracting, electronic commerce, financial services, pharmaceuticals, and more.
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:
