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.
Tom Warden is chief insurance and science officer of CLARA Analytics. He oversees the company’s scientific, technological and research operations.
Jay Meschke is President of CBIZ Talent & Compensation Solutions and the executive search firm EFL Associates. Jay registers 29 years of experience in the retained executive search field, recruiting C-Suite executives for multiple industries and across a variety of functional disciplines. His portfolio of search assignments exceeds 750 projects and he leads an organization that ranks in the Top 40 out of 2,500 retained executive search firms.
Zana Tomich is co-founding partner of Dalton & Tomich PLC, based in Detroit, and provides outside general counsel services to her clients, including experience representing CPA firms.
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:
