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.
John Mathews is head of Ultra High Net Worth and Private Wealth Management Americas at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Thomas L. Porter, PhD, CPA, is a professor of accounting at Hult International Business School and an adjunct professor at Boston University.
Marvin Weiss, Ph.D., is a retired professor of accounting at the New York Institute of Technology, and founding dean of their School of Management. He has also served as adjunct associate professor of economics at Columbia University and adjunct professor of accounting at the Graduate School of Business at Fordham University. He holds a Ph.D. in business from the Graduate Business School at New York University. His articles on HRA have appeared in several journals and in “Topics in Managerial Accounting, 2ndEd.”
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:
