Tips for reimbursing employees' remote work costs

New questions and considerations continue to arise because large portions of the workforce are working remotely. It’s a good time to review what telework costs are reimbursable. As you’ll see, the rules can vary widely by state.

Workers scattered across many states

Working from home continues to bring up questions employers may not have had to consider before the COVID-19 pandemic—or at least not on such a wide scale. Both employees and employers are wondering what remote work expenses are reimbursable, if at all.

Businesses with employees working remotely across several states also need to think about each state’s laws on how to address and reimburse expenses. States vary in terms of what they might consider to be a work-from-home expense and whether it’s automatically reimbursable to the employee.

Iowa

Iowa has a fairly narrow definition of telework expenses for reimbursement purposes. The state’s code specifically provides:

Expenses by the employee which are authorized by the employer and incurred by the employee shall either be reimbursed in advance of expenditure or be reimbursed no later than 30 days after the employee’s submission of an expense claim.

If an employer refuses to pay all or part of each expense, it needs to explain why to the employee within the same period in which the amount would have been paid. In general, the net result is only employer-authorized expenses would be eligible for reimbursement. You could grant authorization through a policy or a program.

Illinois