Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Let’s Discuss Putting Wildly Inappropriate Things on Expense Reports

As professional capital market servants, you regularly purchase goods and services for business reasons. Airfare. Bic pens. Strippers. They all, at one time or another, have been purchased in the name of commerce. Unfortunately, what constitutes as a "business expense" is subject to wide interpretation. For example, a large elaborate lunch with various co-workers is commonly referred to as "team building." The aforementioned strippers could easily be described as "entertainment." U2 tickets can be classified as "mentoring event," and so on and so forth.  This type of borderline abuse causes for many awkward conversations between a HR representative and the perpetrator. Trust me, I've been there.

Anyway, Accounting Today has a little slideshow on "unusual" items that have found their way on to expense reports that was dug up by a Bob Half survey. Everything from cosmetic surgery to smokes to porn to early 20th century prarie abodes were submitted by someone, somewhere. And while those are all good examples, it seems appropriate to ask you all to participate by sharing your most ridiculous interpretations of the company's expense policy. Is bottle service becoming your preferred entertainment for newly minted interns?  Are you stretching the definition of "reasonable" to include box seats for a Knicks game? Is a client doubling as a secret lover and you've been going to some fancy "business lunches"? However you've managed to successfully navigate the tricky waters of legitimate business expenses, we want to hear about your (mis)adventures. Spare no details.

 

Latest Accounting Jobs--Apply Now:

Have something to add to this story? Give us a shout by email, Twitter, or text/call the tipline at 202-505-8885. As always, all tips are anonymous.

Comments are closed.

Related articles

someone asleep at their desk wearing a VR headset

ChatGPT Isn’t Terminator for Accountants…Yet

Ed. note: the following is a guest post by Jack Castonguay, PhD, CPA, who has not yet been replaced by ChatGPT as far as we know. Or has he? Was ChatGPT sent to us from the future to rescue the industry from the pipeline crisis by filling open accounting jobs with cyborgs and sentient machines? […]

Rita Bellew's racist rant at a Pennsylvania pizzeria

Philadelphia Woman Engages in Passionate CPA Awareness Campaign in a Pizza Parlor

A 55-year-old Philadelphia woman is being charged with ethnic intimidation and harassment — a hate crime under Pennsylvania law — after an unhinged, racist rant in a pizza shop brought on by Spanish language programming on the shop’s television. The original TikTok of her bizarre rant, which took place on February 23, has been removed […]