Had a pretty good year last year, so naturally Uncle Sam is hanging me up by my feet and banging on me like a pinata.

A new discovery this year: the itemized deduction "phase out," which starts chewing off chunks of your Schedule A deductions if Uncle Sam thinks you have too much money. $800 bucks of legal deductions, down the toilet, for no other reason than the fact that I make too much money.

And I'm sure you all know about the income "floors" under things like medical deductions (only medical expenses in excess of 7.5 percent of your income count.)

Then there's the Alternate Minimum Tax, just in case you kept too much money. Apparently I slipped past this one at least, but I'm still looking at close to $30 grand in Federal taxes this year.

I wonder if the tax cuts are going to be retroactive...