Preparing for and Responding to an IRS Audit of an Employee Benefit Plan

Monika is the Director of Employee Plans Examinations and is responsible for EP retirement plan compliance enforcement programs nationwide. She also serves as the Executive Sponsor for the TE/GE International Initiative and for the TE/GE cross-functional Promoter Investigations corporate approach to deter and stop abusive schemes. In addition, Monika serves as the IRS Executive Champion for Inter-agency Collaboration and for the Enrolled Retirement Plan Agent (ERPA) Program.

Monika has over 20 years of experience in IRS management positions, including EP Area Manager, Great Lakes and Acting Director EP Rulings and Agreements. She studied International law at the University of Bologna, Italy, after receiving a scholarship from New York Law School. In 1980, she earned a JD Degree from Southern California Institute of Law. Monika is an attorney, former Corporate Counsel, former Law Professor and a member of the CA Bar.

Tom is the Area Manager of the Employee Plans Examination Gulf Coast. Tom started his IRS career with the Employee Plans section of EP/EO in Dallas in January, 1987. He worked both determinations and examinations before being selected as a review agent in Technical Review Staff in 1989. He became an EP Group Manager in 1991. In addition to managing examination and determination groups, he served as Chief, Planning and Special Projects (PSP), and on the staff of the EP/EO Division Chief during the 1995 reorganization of the Midstates Region. Tom served on two TEGE Modernization teams when EP/EO was reorganized into TE/GE. Tom became the manager of the EP examination group in Austin in 1996, and he became the manager of the Gulf Coast Employee Plans Team Audit (EPTA) group in October, 2001. He was selected as area manager in 2011.

Tom has a BA degree from Gannon University in Erie, PA, and masters in business from The University of Texas at Austin. Tom is married and has two children.

Susan leads Moss Adams’ Compensation and Benefits Practice. She has more than 25 years of pension plan design, consulting, and administration experience. She has managed services to plans of all sizes from the newly formed, small, single employer plan to large employer plans with over 70,000 participants and assets in excess of $1 billion. In her role as the firm’s retirement plan tax practice leader, Susan works directly with clients on tax compliance issues including responding to IRS and DOL audit inquiries, and coordinates closely with the employee benefit plan auditors. Her responsibilities include managing the client relationship through all aspects of plan design and implementation, assisting plan sponsors in setting objectives, and monitoring the success of these strategies. She is a member of the Western Pension & Benefits Conference.