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.
Patrick McFadin is the vice president of developer relations at DataStax, where he leads a team devoted to making users of DataStax products successful. He has also worked as chief evangelist for Apache Cassandra and consultant for DataStax, where he helped build some of the largest deployments in production. Previous to DataStax, he was chief architect at Hobsons and an Oracle DBA/developer for over 15 years.
Nakimuli O. Davis-Primer is a labor and employment associate in the Jackson, Miss., office.
Cathy Allen, CPA, of Audit Conduct LLC, educates CPAs and others on auditor independence and ethics requirements though consultation, training, litigation support and expert services. She previously served as a managing director in PwC, LLP and served as senior staff to the AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee. She serves on the New York State Board for Public Accountancy and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy Board of Directors as Northeast regional director , and chairs NASBA’s Ethics Committee.
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:
