This afternoon, the Senate Finance Committee approved by voice vote the $8.3 billion "Small Business and Work Opportunity Act of 2007," co-sponsored by Committee chair Max Baucus (D-MT) and ranking member Charles Grassley (R-IA). The bill provides an array of tax breaks, mostly geared toward small business, and is basically offset with provisions that are principally aimed at corporations and wealthy individuals. (See JCT scoring for details).

David Cay Johnston, ace tax reporter, has an excellent story in today's NYT on the norms at IRS concerning audits. To sum up, IRS auditors are more or less discouraged to do thorough audits, letting billions of dollars get away when it's right in front of them. Top officials at the Internal Revenue Service are pushing agents to prematurely close audits of big companies with agreements to have them pay only a fraction of the additional taxes that could be collected, according to dozens of I.R.S. employees who say that the policy is costing the government billions of dollars a year.

Steven Pearlstein, the business columnists for the Washington Post, has a blistering expose on Sen. Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) in today's paper. Pearlstein wonders how (or perhaps why?) Sen. Baucus was able to work his way to the top of the Democrats' list to lead the Finance Committee when many if not all of his views on committee business are essentially contrary to the Democratic Party platform. A few excerpts:

The Democrats are at great pains not to confirm the hysterical GOP midterm warnings that Pelosi & Co. would tax-and-spend like there was no yesterday. But commentators like Robert Kuttner and Paul Krugman, and others have urged a re-examination of ways to raise revenue for domestic needs Democrats have promised to address, raising the dread specter of tax increases. To the surprise of many, Nancy Pelosi declared on CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday that she too is considering raising revenue by repealing tax cuts on taxpayers making over $500,000 a year: