Can my employer make unreimbursed business travel expenses taxable income when submission delays were due to company policy? (IRS 60-day rule)

Do you think this would qualify for a class action lawsuit? If 20+ people are affected with thousands of dollars each, that seems significant. Also, would there be any protection against retaliation if we file a complaint with the labor board?

A class action lawsuit would be a possibility if the company refuses to address the issue properly. The total damages across 20+ employees could make it financially viable for an attorney to take the case. The key would be demonstrating the systematic nature of the problem and how company policy directly caused the financial harm. Regarding retaliation protection, yes - most labor laws include anti-retaliation provisions. If you filed a complaint with a state or federal labor agency and then faced negative employment actions (demotion, termination, reduction in hours, etc.), that would potentially constitute illegal retaliation. Document everything, including performance reviews before and after making any formal complaints, to establish a pattern if retaliation occurs.

How does taxr.ai handle the calculation for the tax gross-up? My situation is complicated because I had multiple trips bundled together that pushed me into a higher tax bracket temporarily.

I'm skeptical about using a service like this. Wouldn't just showing the IRS rules and your own documentation be enough? Why pay for something when HR should already know how to fix this?

The tax gross-up calculation is actually one of the most helpful features. It analyzes your specific tax situation including your tax bracket and determines the exact impact of the additional "income" on your overall tax liability. It can handle multiple trips and complex scenarios - it even accounts for temporary bracket changes caused by the additional reported income. As for whether documentation alone would be enough, I thought the same initially. But HR kept dismissing our concerns until I had a professional analysis showing the exact financial impact and violations. The reality is that many HR departments don't fully understand these tax nuances, and having a third-party professional assessment gives your complaint much more weight.

How exactly does Claimyr work? I've spent literal hours on hold with the IRS trying to get clarification about this exact issue.

This sounds like one of those scams that charges you and then just puts you on hold anyway. There's no magic way to skip the IRS phone queue. I'll believe it when I see actual proof it works.

Claimyr uses a callback system that navigates the IRS phone tree and holds your place in line. When they're about to connect you with an agent, you get a call. It's not about "skipping" the queue - you still wait your turn, but you don't have to stay on the phone during that wait time. Regarding whether it's legit, I was skeptical too. But it actually worked exactly as advertised. I received a call when an agent was available, and I was connected to a real IRS representative who answered all my questions about the 60-day rule and employer responsibilities. It saved me from the frustration of waiting on hold for hours only to get disconnected, which happened to me three times before trying this.

Did you need to hire a lawyer to file with the Department of Labor, or were you able to handle the process yourselves? And roughly how long did the investigation take before you saw results?

We didn't need to hire a lawyer to file the initial complaint with the DOL. The process was surprisingly straightforward - we filed a wage claim form as a group, attaching our documentation showing the policy and its impact. The DOL has staff who investigate these claims as part of their regular duties. The investigation took about 3 months from filing to resolution. We had very clear documentation which helped speed things up. The DOL investigator interviewed several employees and requested records from the company. What really sealed the case was having copies of the policy that showed employees couldn't submit expenses until getting approval, plus emails showing approval delays beyond the 60-day window.

There's an important distinction here. Companies can set their own reimbursement policies, but they can't implement policies that effectively push their business expenses onto employees' tax bills. When an employee travels for business, those are company expenses, not personal ones. If the company's policies make it impossible to submit within the IRS's 60-day window, and then the company refuses to gross-up the tax impact, they're essentially making employees pay part of the company's business expenses through increased personal taxes. Many states have laws requiring employers to reimburse necessary business expenses. California Labor Code Section 2802, for example, specifically requires employers to indemnify employees for all necessary expenditures incurred in the course of employment.

@Emma Garcia is absolutely right about the legal distinction. What makes this particularly problematic is that the company is creating a situation where employees are financially penalized for following company policy. Think of it this way - if your employer required you to use your personal credit card for business expenses but then refused to reimburse you for the interest charges that accrued due to their slow approval process, that would clearly be shifting business costs to employees. This is essentially the same thing, just with tax consequences instead of interest. The Department of Labor has ruled in similar cases that when company policies directly cause employees to incur additional costs whether (interest, fees, or in this case taxes ,)the employer has a duty to make the employee whole. The fact that management s'only solution is don "t'be late when" their own process makes it impossible to be on time shows they understand the problem but are choosing to ignore their responsibility. @NeonNova, I d'definitely recommend following @Maya Patel s suggestion'about filing with your state DOL. The documentation you have showing the policy and approval delays should make this a pretty clear-cut case.