Chelsea Alspaugh-Simmons

Chelsea Alspaugh-Simmons is a senior manager in the tax group at Crowe. She specializes in Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit, Section 174 cost analysis, and R&D Tax Credit Audit Defense. Chelsea has more than 12 years of experience in public accounting providing services related to developing, tailoring, and managing specialized work plans to maximize and sustain a taxpayer’s R&D claim, specifically for large corporate taxpayers within the medical device, consumer products, and manufacturing and distribution industries. Chelsea has spent significant time in her career working with companies to identify areas of opportunities in their credit workplans, claims, and documentation support, while also defending claims under IRS or state audit review.

• Speaker/Presenter, Morgan Lewis R&D Symposium – November 2020, November 2024
• Presenter, TEI Kentucky Chapter – October 2023
• Co-author, Bloomberg Tax, Why Industry 4.0 Matters to a Tax Department – November 2020
• Co-author, Domestic R&E Deduction Returns Under Section 174A, July 2025
• Co-author, Why Human-Centered AI Is Changing R&D Credit Defensibility, January 2026

• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
• Tennessee Society of CPAs (TSCPA)

• Master of Taxation
  Georgia State University | Atlanta, Georgia
• Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Accounting
  University of Tennessee | Knoxville, Tennessee