People Claim the Strangest Things

A selection of fanciful expense claims

AccountingWeb recently invited its readership to share the strangest expenses claims accountants had come across. It threw up some eye brow raising and humorous stories, all of them genuine.

A load of old bull

Included in a farmer’s invoices was a lab report for a bull’s sperm test. The extraction method was described as ‘manual’, with the available ratings being ‘watery, milky and creamy’!

Asset enhancement

A female entertainer claimed 50% of the cost of a breast enhancement which precipitated a material increase in her earnings and, so she maintained, a boost in her confidence. Following an enquiry, the tax inspector was adamant that the expense was not allowable but changed his mind after meeting her!

Another accountant shared that one of their clients had included in their records an invoice from a clinic which was obviously a breast implant for the wife. The expense had been included in repairs and renewals!

Dead expenditure

Upon questioning a client about an expense for a fridge the accountant was told this was for keeping bodies in as they start to get a bit high in the summer. The client was a funeral director!

Not that type of VAT

After paying the necessary VAT due a publican claimed back the entire VAT payment as input tax in the next quarter!

Not got a leg to stand on

A company, that was run by an Italian gentleman who had close ties to his Sicilian ‘family’, included in its business records an invoice for the cost of an artificial leg. This turned out to be the cost of a replacement limb for a customer who was a habitual bad payer and who had suffered an accident with a sledge hammer!

Protective clothing?

A man claimed for a pair of Christian Louboutin high heeled shoes whilst working on an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea!

Unique balancing entry

Husband and wife couple sat with their accountant who queried sundry expenses of £50 and who jokingly quipped that the manual cash book entry looked like ‘prostitute’. How right he was! The husband had been rumbled and the wife who was the book-keeper had insisted that the expense be entered in order to balance the petty cash!

Just cosmetic

Haircuts and beauty products were claimed by a lady who maintained that these were essential to her work – in a call centre!

Be on your guard

An I.T worker who was also a delivery driver with his own vehicle claimed vet bills and dog food as he was of the opinion that his dog was a guard dog for his home office and van when he was out on his rounds. The dog was that most ferocious of breed, a miniature Yorkshire Terrier!