A spokesman at the IRS announced yesterday that Deputy Commissioner Kevin Brown will become acting IRS commissioner May 4. Current Commissioner Mark Everson has accepted a position heading up the American Red Cross (see here and here for more on Everson's departure). In much the way a senior in college decided to go to graduate school to put off a decision about what to do with their life, the IRS said Brown would only be the acting commissioner for 25 days. For him to continue beyond that time would require White House approval.

There's a good Wall Street Journal article today on the importance of estate tax audits. But it's missing some critical context. On one of the people in the story, a former estate tax auditor: Ms. New started auditing estate-tax returns in the IRS's Detroit office in the 1980s. She managed an estate-tax group from 2001 until early this year, when she took a buyout and went into private practice.

After Congress adopts the minimum wage small business tax package -- Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act of 2007 -- as part of the war spending supplemental conference report, and the president vetoes it, what will become of it? Will it be part of a post-veto "Supp. 2.0"?

House Ways and Means chair Charles Rangel and Senate Finance chief Max Baucus have indeed worked out a compromise minimum wage tax deal providing $4.84 bn. in tax relief for small business over 10 years, offset by an equal amount of tax increases.