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.
Martin Sarjeant is head of risk solutions management and strategy for the insurance business at FIS based in London, U.K. He is a dynamic solution leader responsible for delivering product innovation to help insurers drive growth, lower total cost of ownership and meet regulatory requirements. Martin travels extensively visiting customers around the world to ensure the solution development and strategy reflects their requirements as well as current and upcoming reporting needs, of particularly focus over the last 4 years has been IFRS 17.
David Stolz, CPA/PFS, is CEO of Stolz and Associates, and chair of the American Institute of CPAs’ Personal Financial Specialist Credential Committee.
Jacquelyn leads business operations at OfficeTogether, an office reservation and scheduling software that helps teams coordinate time in the office together while also enabling companies to effectively manage real estate needs against historical and predicted capacity. Prior to OfficeTogether, Jacquelyn led People Analytics & Strategy at Coinbase and was a member of Google's People Analytics team. She is currently pursuing her MBA at Berkeley's Haas School of Business and serves on the Stanford Cap & Gown and Computer History Museum NextGen Boards.
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:
