Foreign Travel and Laiming Expenses back

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by: Hannah Nixon
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Word Count: 394
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2011 Time: 5:52 AM
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I am a frequent international traveller, and business expenses is always a tedious chore that needs to be done. The whole process to me is actually very frustrating for several reasons. One, our company only allows for writing out the expenses in weekly intervals. So for example, if I leave Friday, and I am back the following Friday, I need to write TWO expense reports (huh?). Just a tad behind the times, in my opinion.

The other issue I have is the time to get it in, get it processed, have the check back to me, and depositing it into my bank account takes more than four weeks. This means that if I am traveling two weeks straight, by the time I get back, and actually deposit the check, I will incur a fee from the credit card that I use. And I'm not at a level where the fee can be waived off on such corporate cards, either (I'm not even sure if corporate cards even allow you to waive that off any more). A losing battle. Something is missing here, and I don't know what it is. I do plead some cases where certain items should be considered as a business expense. For me, the pet peeve is suit dry cleaning. I hardly wear a suit during my normal everyday business. So when I go and meet my customers, and I wear a suit, shouldn't the suit cleaning be part of the expense I can claim for?

The other thing that gets me is the disparity between different regions of the world. In some regions, even buying a suit (including shoes) can be expensed. I've seen cases where a whole golf club set was expensed (crucial for business).

I'm not arguing that certain business expenses are allowable or not. I just want it to be consistent. Even for the scams people talk about in the UK or other foreign exchange and forex news articles for the well-paid bankers. Some may say that it is of excess. However, some may agree that it is a necessary evil for these companies to bring in and persuade top clients that give them even bigger assets. So who is it to blame? I guess it's a matter of perspective…

About the Author

I wrote this article as i wanted to let know how to get hold of their unclaimed expenses and as such found that foreign exchange and commodities trading is a booming online enterprise. I recently found this website and thought it might be useful for those looking deeper into the subject.