Comments on: The Rear-admiral’s vice

By: Matelot

Matelot — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:06:02 +0000

“He was a public servant in the Navy as well as working for NSW Ferries. It’s not as if he had to adjust to a new culture”

Maybe he did need to adjust to the culuture. You would be surprised to learn of the corruption that occurred on HMAS Parramatta while he was the Commanding Officer.

By: papachango

papachango — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:56:09 +0000

oh I’m aware that creative claims exist. The most creative ones are generally by a Boss/PA or Boss/Subordinate tag team – ‘put it on your card and I’ll sign it off’

But in the corporates I’ve worked for it probably wouldn’t get to $237k before it was picked up

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:10:26 +0000

I must say it’s great that Strawman is posting again.

By: Michael Sutcliffe

Michael Sutcliffe — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:39:34 +0000

I hope he gets banged up for it.

Do you mean banged up the Admiral’s rear? hahahaha

By: davidleyonhjelm

davidleyonhjelm — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:21:50 +0000

Terje, you have led an extraordinarily sheltered life. Strawman is quite correct – the boss often looks the other way on expense claims because his own claims are usually equally creative. Some companies might get a bit anal about it but the majority have unwritten “flexibility”.

The Admiral has no excuses though. He was a public servant in the Navy as well as working for NSW Ferries. It’s not as if he had to adjust to a new culture. Taxpayers money must be managed more scrupulously than most. I don’t mind an occasional lunch, but he went berserk. I hope he gets banged up for it.

By: Strawman

Strawman — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:34:26 +0000

Guys,

Yes, those of you not hiding behind a nom de guerre have to write those things.

Of COURSE you never pad the expense account, right?

Heh.

By: TerjeP (say tay-a)

TerjeP (say tay-a) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:44:54 +0000

If it is accounted for as staff amentity instead of staff entertainment and if the booze isn’t explicitly declared as booze then you can dodge the fringe benefits tax. However a tax inspector would probably spot it if you get audited.

By: Papachango

Papachango — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:12:12 +0000

Terje – just for fun, I once did a search of my work’s GL for the pub across the road.

There was a sizeable chunk in there, but the account codings were quite creative – not just staff entertainment, but training, conferences, seminars, subscriptions, and general admin

By: Papachango

Papachango — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 01:20:31 +0000

Agree with terje – all companies I’ve worked for have pretty satrict rules about corporate card use.

A mate of mine in sales used his to buy a bottle of wine once, and got hauled in front of finance. He was travelling interstate, and would have been entitled to purchase a restaurant meal, with wine served. instead he went to a mates for dinner and brought the wine. Despite claiming he’d saved the company money as the cost of the wine was less than a restaurant meal he had to pay it back.

Also, I don’t think you can use a corporate card to dodge tax in the way you’re describing. The buggers in government, while they are bad at many things, are quite good at protecting their revenue. They created Fringe Benefits tax to close precisely this loophole.

By: TerjeP (say tay-a)

TerjeP (say tay-a) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:00:33 +0000

Hmm. Nowhere that I have worked (all private sector) is the corporate credit card treated as a perk to be used for personal benefit. The possible exception being sizable staff events where the card is behind the bar. And even in those cases I’m reasonably sure the cost appears on the GL as staff entertainment.