Expense Reimbursements 2025 – Proper Recordkeeping And Accounting For OBBB And Payroll Compliance

Employee expense reimbursements are subject to IRS guidelines and can be disallowed as expenses - and even considered compensation to those employees – if not handled correctly.

Further, if employee expense reimbursements do not meet IRS guidelines, they may be disallowed as expenses and considered compensation to those employees, leaving your organization responsible for the associated payroll taxes - plus any penalties.

This training session will help you to recognize – and accurately report – employee expense reimbursements.

Learning Objectives

This course covers the rules and requirements for expense reimbursements, as well as best practices for processing expense reimbursements either in payroll or accounts payable, and covers:

• IRS expense reimbursement requirements
• Your plan must be deemed an "Accountable Plan" by the IRS in order for ANY expense reimbursement to be excluded from payroll taxes. Do you know what makes a plan "accountable?"
• So you have a taxable expense reimbursed to employees, what are your options for calculating and reporting those taxes
• Are per diems good for your company?
• General rules of thumb to keep in mind about all expense reimbursements
• Detailed rules for specific types of reimbursement – high on the auditors review list!
• Areas where state law can differ from federal law
• Employee fraud: what to look for
• Case studies: these companies have well thought out plans – did the IRS agree or disagree

You'll also receive "Best Practices" tips for:

• Use of company and personal credit cards
• Your company expense reimbursement policy
• Accounts Payable and Payroll Dept communication

About Your Speaker

Mark Schwartz has over 15 years experience in state and federal payroll tax audits, collections, and payroll consulting.

As an auditor, Mark prided himself on his ability to educate his auditees on state and federal payroll tax requirements. Whatever issues he found in audits, he ensured the auditee knew how to comply in the future. He worked to minimize company disruptions in the audit process.

In addition to his real-life experiences, Mark has a Masters in Business Administration, and currently uses his entertaining and helpful personality to help organizations prepare for payroll tax audits - whether they've already got the notice or are still hoping they don't!