Can my employer not reimburse me for work expenses if I'm late?
January 5, 2016 1:54 PM   Subscribe

My employer is trying to screw me out of money I spent on a personal credit card for work expenses.

I work for a consulting firm that requires me to personally pay for hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars of expenses related to my work. They do not provide me with a credit card for this and as such I have to use my own credit card.

They have a policy that states that I have to file expense reports for all expenses within 90 days of the expense or they will not reimburse it.

While I'd like to not spend a lot of time being lectured on it, I missed quite a number of these deadlines, however I still made the annual deadline for submitting all of my expenses before the fiscal year close. The reasons are basically the extreme amounts of workload placed upon me - I was regularly required to work 10+ hours a week on top of the 50-60 hours I was already billing to clients, so even keeping up with the overall workload, let alone administrative tasks like expense reports, was a weekly struggle. I simply couldn't find the time and in the end used my own time over the holidays to finally pull everything together.

My question is whether my employer has legal grounds to refuse to reimburse me based on their own policy for expenses that they required and directed me to incur on their behalf. State is CA if it matters.
posted by anonymous to Work & Money (8 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm basically 100% sure that this is legal. Your employer is not trying to "screw you out of money" - they are trying to keep their books current.
posted by schroedingersgirl at 2:00 PM on January 5, 2016 [7 favorites]


The IRS requires your employer to account for expenses in "a reasonable amount of time":

Publication 463: "You adequately account for your expenses within 60 days after they were paid or incurred." Longer delays are allowed, but are not necessarily considered a "reasonable amount of time".

Had you been an employee, you may have had some protection in California law: "An employer shall indemnify his or her employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties." It sounds like you are not an employee, though, so this is not applicable. If you are indeed not an employee, the specifics of your expense reimbursement is entirely a function of your employment agreement with your employer, which you should be referring to rather than the law.

Do note that it is entirely acceptable for an employer to fire you for failing to file expense reports, so you may have to make a decision as to whether you want your job or your reimbursements.
posted by saeculorum at 2:02 PM on January 5, 2016 [4 favorites]


Had you been an employee, you may have had some protection in California law: "An employer shall indemnify his or her employee for all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties." It sounds like you are not an employee, though, so this is not applicable.
It sounds like the OP is an employee though, where are you getting that he or she is not an employee? It's my understanding that that CA law does apply.
posted by peacheater at 2:20 PM on January 5, 2016




You are asking a relatively complex, fact-intensive question of state employment law in a state that has particularly byzantine state employment laws. So, once again, I will parrot the best legal advice ever given on AskMe: "As a person qualified to answer this question in real life, I suggest you find a person qualified to answer this question in real life." (Thank you melissasaurus.)
posted by The Bellman at 2:35 PM on January 5, 2016 [7 favorites]


It really doesn't seem that byzantine, the law seems to be clear in California. Here is an excerpt from a legal discussion about this issue that seems pretty clear to me:
It is important to keep in mind that while employers are legally allowed to pay reimbursable expenses on their regularly scheduled date, terminated employees have a nonforfeitable right to be reimbursed for those expenses and payments, and reimbursement must be made no later than the date such expenses would otherwise normally be paid. This holds true even if an employee failed to submit an expense report in accordance with company policy. According to a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (Stuart v. Radioshack Corporation), even if an employee does not submit an expense report in accordance with company policy, an employer must nonetheless reimburse the employee . Moreover, the court ruled that if the employer knows or has reason to know that an expense was incurred, the employer is obligated to reimburse work-related expenses even if an employee doesn't make a formal request to be reimbursed.
posted by peacheater at 2:39 PM on January 5, 2016


Yeah, it sounds like OP is an employee in California, and is therefore covered. But it is also true that they can fire you for not turning in your reports (although they would still owe you the reimbursement).

It's probably best to start with politeness and supplication and NO EXCUSES - "Hey, I know I was late with my expense reports - I'm sorry, I realize now that it probably makes a lot of extra work for other people. But under CA state law, I'm still entitled to that money; what can we do to work this out?"

Based on my admittedly near-nonexistent knowledge of CA employment law it sounds like you would win a suit against your employer, but that would be a pyrrhic victory.

Also, make yourself a physical folder and an email tag/folder for your expenses going forward - unless the reporting requirements are really onerous, this shouldn't be a big addition to your workload and you can do it in front of the TV or whatever.
posted by mskyle at 2:43 PM on January 5, 2016


If it is any consolation, you may be able to deduct unreimbursed expenses on your tax return. However, you must take the deduction on Schedule A so it only helps if your itemized deductions are greater than the standard deduction. For most people this means owning a home with a mortgage. In that case you can deduct the amount of unreimbursed expenses that are greater than 2% of your adjusted gross income.
posted by JackFlash at 4:12 PM on January 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


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