Did They Really Claim That?

Even though it’s the first week in November, I’m skipping my annual tradition of procrastination when it comes to gathering receipts and related documentation for my 1040 filings. This year I’ve accumulated a host of receipts from charitable donations, which hopefully, will alleviate my tax burden come April.

Perhaps to lighten the mood of wearily preparing for another filing season, I saw an article from an expense management company that listed 10 craziest expenses of 2015 in hopes of getting them though their company auditors. It seems each year expense submissions become more exponentially bizarre and this year’s will certainly remain in step – if not go beyond what had been reported in the past.

How about a water treatment plant salesman that purchased a $400 shotgun for a good customer? I would hate to imagine what a poor customer would have received.  That deduction was actually approved. One however that was not was $17,000 for new automobile replacing one that was damaged by an employee for a tech consulting firm. The IT firm classified the deduction under the category of “employee stupidity.”

I’ll bet.

Keeping with attempts of past years, a $1,000 expense was submitted for “adult entertainment,” (read: strip club) and just as quickly was denied. In a related field, a school district member was denied its $1,000 attempted deduction for massages. I’ll just leave that one alone.

Others were smile-worthy such as the deduction from an agriculture concern for a separate room to store garlic samples because a salesperson could not tolerate the smell. I’ll be willing to wager that he/she was obviously not Italian.  Or an $80 tab for drinks because it kept his spouse “calm and relaxed.”

There was a $35,000 expense for a dozen cases of wine, $20,000 for a charter flight and $18,000 for a “night out in Las Vegas.” Personally, I’ve, ahem, “experienced” more than a few of those in Sin City and can vouch that the tab for none of them ever approached $18,000. Maybe I’ve been out with the wrong people. Or else companies with bare bones expense accounts.

I have been tempted to try this one myself – a web design services company employee submitted a $150 expense for towing charges. Seems street parking was scarce (Manhattan maybe?) and they parked in an illegal spot but claimed it was necessary due to the importance of a meeting.

By coincidence I just received a notice that my gym membership is up for renewal.

Hmm, do you think…?