Benefits and Breakfast: Typical Areas of Focus in an IRS Audit of a 401(k) Plan

Drinker Biddle held the latest Benefits & Breakfast, our series of in-person morning meetings taking place throughout 2019 in our offices around the country.

These roundtable presentations feature lawyers from our national Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Group discussing new and emerging issues. We discussed benefits issues, networked with fellow professionals, and enjoyed a delicious breakfast.

Topic for the June Breakfast:

Our June presentation discussed typical areas of focus in an IRS audit, such as:

• Missing participant search procedures
• Minimum required distribution failures
• Operational adherence (or lack thereof) to plan terms
• Plan loan administration
• Coverage and nondiscrimination testing

Of course, the best defense is a good offense! The smartest preparation for a potential IRS audit is to perform regular administrative and document reviews of the plan, a strategy which we addressed during the presentation.