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.
William Kannel is a member of and chair of Mintz Levin's Bankruptcy & Restructuring practice
Len Weiser-Varon a member of Mintz Levin’s Public Finance practice with a specialty in workouts and restructurings.
Nimish Patel is a vice chairman at the law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP and is based in the Los Angeles office. His primary focus is corporate and securities laws. He is well versed in drafting complex business transactional documents and securities offerings. Mr. Patel's experience includes mergers and acquisitions for private and public companies, angel and venture capital financing, IPOs, Secondary Offerings, cross border transactions and other financing and corporate restructurings. Mr. Patel currently advises early stage companies as well as publicly traded exchange listed companies on corporate governance and regulatory filing requirements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He also focuses on crypto assets and blockchain technology.
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:
