Who gets the rebate?

amother

Scarlet

Tue, Nov 03 2015, 12:05 am

Imagine this scenario:

You work from home. You need to restock certain supplies. Your boss tells you that you can spend up to X amount and he will reimburse you. You could get office supplies anywhere, but you happen to pass a specific store and make your purchases there. Upon checkout, you discover that one item is covered by a rebate.

What do you do?

amother

Peach

Tue, Nov 03 2015, 12:10 am

I am "The boss" and I'd feel really bad if one of my employees was not open about the rebate. I'd wonder about what else they are not open about.

In my line of work it is not usually cost efficient to have my employees take the time to fill out and take care of the rebates. I'd rather have my employees doing their jobs. we are very busy here and I might offer the employee to do it on her own time and keep it. But that is my choice. I think it belongs to the boss.

notshanarishona

Tue, Nov 03 2015, 12:21 am

I think the employee should mention it to the boss and let the boss decide.
Person who covers the purchases is entitled to the savings.

gp2.0

Tue, Nov 03 2015, 7:09 am

If the boss told you:

"I'm giving you $200 to buy office supplies" you are obligated to use all that money for supplies only. Either use all the money for supplies or return the extra to him, whether it's through a discount, rebate whatever. (You are not obligated to fill out the rebate in the first place though, because you're not obligated to shop around for discounts and spend as little as possible.)

If your boss told you "here's $200, buy some supplies and keep the rest" then any savings, discounts or rebates are yours to profit from.

If your boss didn't state anything upfront, you should assume the rebate is his and give him the rebate.

mille

Tue, Nov 03 2015, 7:29 am

Definitely mention it. Well, in the case you presented, you are paying for the office supplies and he is reimbursing you. So, in that case, if you spent $100 and got a $10 rebate, you tell him the office supplies cost $90 - not $100. Because that's how much you ended up spending. Saying that you spent $100 is lying, isn't it?

m in Israel

Tue, Nov 03 2015, 7:29 am

Like gp2.0 said, I really don't understand what the logic would be in taking the rebate for yourself. If you shopped around and found a cheaper price for an item, would you then pocket the difference between the cheaper price and the standard price? In every job that I have ever been given money for expenses, it was always for the ACTUAL expenses, not for what the items COULD cost. If I got items on sale it meant I could buy more supplies, because I got a specific dollar amount -- but I wasn't free to pocket the money instead.

Of course you have no obligation to fill out the rebate.

observer

Tue, Nov 03 2015, 10:12 am

I would spend the allotted amount plus rebate. Say boss allots $200 and rebate is $20, I would spend $220, getting $20 back from the rebate in addition to the amount the boss spent.

CatLady

Tue, Nov 03 2015, 10:27 am

The rebate clearly belongs to the company IMHO. However, if I bought the items on my credit card and then got reimbursed, I'd feel comfortable accepting any cashback rewards, points, etc.

causemommysaid

Thu, Nov 05 2015, 11:17 pm

One of the.options was to say something after ur reimbursed. If u legitimately think u won't be paid back for supplies then maybe wait till u are reimbursed before mentioning it

Miri7

Fri, Nov 06 2015, 2:01 am

I would mention the rebate when getting reimbursed, then would pass the savings along to the company when the rebate is received. Doing otherwise is dishonest.

Bored

Fri, Nov 06 2015, 2:06 am

its actually a real halachik shaalah. I know someone who wrote a whole response to something like this. you can pm me if you want an email address for more info on it

sky

Fri, Jan 01 2016, 12:52 pm

I was just thinking about this thread (know it was a long time ago).
I assumed then tat the boss gets the refund.

but DH just did purchasing for his dep't and bought from a supplier who was giving a gift card that week as a promotion. The gift card was sent specifically to DH. DH asked his rav in passing who it belongs to. Our Rav said this is discussed extensively. It isn't clear cut, but at a minimum should be split between the boss and employee (we just gave to boss because it wasn't a huge amount and looked chintzy to split)

amother

Scarlet

Fri, Jan 01 2016, 1:05 pm

OP here.

Of course I wasn't planning on withholding money from my boss. I was curious about this question on the theoretical level.

I emailed my rav with the shaila. His response:

"If there is an industry standard, like airline miles which usually go to the employee who travels and not to the company, you can follow the industry standard. Absent a clear industry standard the halacha is that the boss is entitled to the rebate (but you are under no obligation to apply for the rebate), unless he is mochel explicitly."

I ended up waiting for the rebate check to come before putting in for reimbursement.

imasinger

Fri, Jan 01 2016, 1:11 pm

Thanks for the update! Too often on imamother, we never learn how the story ends. I appreciate your sharing what the psak was.