Carol Gold, Director of Employee Plans TE/GE (IRS), spoke today at the Mid-Atlantic Area Employee Benefits Conference held May 13-14, 2003, in Philadelphia, PA. and said that the IRS is seeking to concentrate more resources on low compliance areas. She said the IRS is analyzing data from cases using risk assessment methodology and will refine the data to determine high to low compliance within certain market segments. Also mentioned was the Employee Plans Team Audit Program (“EPTA”) which will bring together a group of highly skilled agents who will audit large plans (2500 or more participants) as a team. Finally, she discussed what triggers an audit and the words “Large, Unusual, and Questionable” as being key adjectives which describe items that might be picked up on audit, such as a “large” number of participants separating in a given year without 100% vesting, or a “large” percentage of loans to participants as compared to the total assets in the plan. Other key areas for audit: small employer ESOPs, ADP/ACP testing, nonamenders, and plans that have been terminated, but never distributed out to participants. Of all cases under examination, she reported that one-half of those cases usually result in the need for corrections to be made.