Reimbursement

Non-Travel

Reimbursement is perhaps the most common practice of withdrawing money. In order to get reimbursed, proof of payment (not proof of cost) must be attached to Check Request Form. Checks for reimbursement can be made payable to whoever purchased items. Brandeis University is a tax-exempt institution. Thus, only food taxes will be reimbursed; all other forms of taxes cannot be reimbursed.

Following are important requirements/reminders.

• Reimbursement for services of independent contractors is NOT allowed. For instance, you may not pay them directly by yourself, not even from a clubÕs bank account. This is due to tax regulations by the Internal Revenue Service. See Independent Contractors section for more information.
• Receipts must be original, not photocopies.
• Receipts should be itemized, meaning all items purchased should be shown, not just a total amount.
• For online orders, combined printouts of an order confirmation (not a shipping cart) and a shipping confirmation constitute an original receipt.
• If items are purchased with checks, the following should be attached
• Bank statement showing the process of a check including the processed check or check image or a copy. Check image is a copy of a processed check which appears in a bank statement or online banking; and
• Copy or a carbon copy of a check issued (copy of a check issued alone is not a proof of payment; it does not prove that the check has actually been processed by a bank).
• Rarely, some stores only give out written or e-mail receipts. In this case, the following should be included in the paper.

• Date and time of purchase
• All items purchased
• Taxes if applicable; and
• Phone number, complete address, and name of a cashier of a store.

• Proof of payment in foreign languages must be translated into English. Please also provide translator's contact information.
• If amount purchased is in foreign currency, convert the foreign currency into the US amount based on the rate on date of purchase, not before or later. Print out from a web page for the rate used to convert the expense to US dollars and attach to proof of payment.

There are several reasons for not receiving requested reimbursement amount fully:

• Tax deduction
• Reimbursement amount requested is more than actual money remaining in an organization's F-Board Allocations Fund or a fundraising account
• If the reimbursement is not for an expense approved by the F-Board; and/or
• If the reimbursement would violate the law.

Travel

Reimbursement for travel can only be made upon completion of travel. In addition to Student Union-specific forms like Check Request Form, the following forms need to be supplemented:

• Business Expense Report Form for Brandeis members; and,
• Non-Employee Payment Request Form for non-Brandeis members.

For lodging (hotels, etc), provide proof of payment that also includes dates of stay.

For cars driven, print out webpage from both Mapquest.com and map.google.com indicating start, end, and total miles between two destinations.

For other ground transportation and air travel, remember to keep your boarding pass stub as proof that travel occurred. Additionally, please submit an original credit card statement in which the charge appears along with an online or an e-mail confirmation as proof of payment.

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This page is availabe online at:
http://union.brandeis.edu/fboard/reimbursement.php