jazzguitarman:

Most people here have said the goal (purpose) of returning the money was to make up for the losses suffered by the company. That is logical and I agree with this goal 100%.

BUT returning 3K to the company is likely to NOT meet this goal and I have explained why.

You say it is up to them. My point is that their accountant would wish you did NOT give them this BURDEN. Yes, BURDEN!!!! You assume the company would WELCOME the money and I have provided logical reasons why the money could be a burden.

It the GOAL was to do the company a favor than giving back the money is likely NOT do a favor but instead a disservice. Learn something about how a business is run. I wasn't taking about a MORAL issue here. With regards to the MORAL issue there is NO WAY to make up for the crime that was committed but giving the business another burden isn't a good start!

Sorry, as an accountant for a middling size company, I don't agree with you. What is so logical about your reasons? Depending on the size of the company they may have just written it off as a loss or bad debt instead of burdening themselves with dealing with an insurance company for what really equals a small amount of money. In receiving the money all they would have to do is claim it as miscellaneous income and pay the taxes at that time. If they did go through the insurance company, they would have claimed their deductible as a loss or bad debt and all they would have to do is pay back the insurance company and claim the amount that was the deductible as miscellaneous income and pay the taxes on it. A good accountant would not consider that a BURDEN no matter how they dealt with it at the time. It is not a very complicated problem in an accounting standpoint.