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.
Stephan Fabel is director of product at Canonical.
Bill Tolson is vice president at Archive360. Prior to this role he was a senior storage solutions marketing manager for StorageTek. Prior to joining StorageTek, Tolson held a number of key positions within the storage industry including Iomega Corp. and Hewlett-Packard. He has over 20 years of experience in the storage industry.
Kacee Johnson, MBA, is a strategic advisor at CPA.com, and founder of Blue Ocean Principles. Previously, she served as executive vice president at Cloud9 Real Time. She was named one of CPA Practice Advisor Magazine's Top 40 Under 40. She is a regular speaker and commentator at industry events nationwide. A graduate of the University of Arizona with a double major in English Literature and Political Science, she later earned a master's degree in business administration.
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:
