Until recently, in general, audits of tax-exempt organizations by the IRS were infrequent.  The IRS was auditing colleges, universities, and hospitals, but examination activity of other exempt organizations was minimal. In the aftermath of the reorganization of the IRS (around 1999) and a substantial increase in congressional appropriations thereafter for tax law enforcement by the agency, this set of circumstances has been significantly altered.  IRS audits of tax-exempt organizations have increased dramatically in recent years, the result in large part of the focus of the current Commissioner of Internal Revenue who continues to induce congressional appropriations for the hiring of examining revenue agents and whose penchant is for tax law enforcement. Not only has exempt organizations audit activity in general been on the increase; the IRS has been taking on entire nonprofit “industries” in an effort to revoke the tax-exempt status of all entities in the field.  Examples of this are the massive audit efforts of credit counseling organizations and down payment assistance organizations.