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.
The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing corporate tax departments to reconsider their top priorities for this year, according to a new survey.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation to close a loophole in the CARES Act.
Prateek Vijayvergia leads the technology team at Xceedance and spearheads large-scale transformation programs across insurance functions such as underwriting, catastrophe modeling, policy service, and claims for re/insurers worldwide. He brings more than 16 years of proven property/casualty insurance domain experience in managing enterprise technology, data science, automation and insurtech initiatives.
With specialization in advancing strategic technology-driven initiatives for insurance industry participants, Prateek has successfully delivered numerous projects, including new business launch, customer-centric platform design, post-merger and separation IT consolidation, legacy platform overhaul, and geo-specific regulatory compliance. Prior to Xceedance, Prateek worked at organizations such as IBM, RBS, and Syntel, and was responsible for the design and delivery of major digital transformation programs.
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:
