Legal Question in Employment Law in California
I work for a big private corporation. I have clients that i bought lunch for. Do to the small amount of each i held on to them and turned them in on march 31, 2011. They all came from 2010. All legitimate lunch purchases to discuss business. I was first told not to hold on to them so long now that are denying the reimbursement saying only they are too old. They agree they are legit but because they are from 2010 they will not be paid. Is this legal
1 Answer from Attorneys
You're kidding, right? The charges are too small an amount for you to remember to submit, but you want a $300/hr attorney to give you an answer about the legalities of it? Really? Fine, here you go: Their 2010 books are closed. They have done their taxes. They cannot go back and deduct this business expense now that you held it so long. So it is perfectly legitimate for them to decline reimbursement. Technically if they required you to pay for client lunches as a condition of your employment they are still obligated to reimburse you. But if it was not an official obligation of your employment, they have no obligation to reimburse you at all. And quite frankly, if you want to stand on that technicality after blowing the 2010 deduction, if you pulled this in my firm I'd be looking for a replacement for you.