The Tax Lawyer’s Blog:  “Experience tells us that spendthrifts are often forced by necessity and desperation to find creative ways to fund their profligate spending. Some turn to gambling, others to confidence games and still others to outright theft.  This phenomenon can be observed in governments as well as individuals.  Here is the latest in a long line . . . of Congress’ creative and cowardly ways of taxing the middle-class.  SusanAnne Hiller writing for Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government blog alerts us to some sneaky tax increases hidden in the 2010 withholding tables in Congress Tinkers with Tax Withholding Tables for 2010“

Washington Post:  “If you call the Internal Revenue Service for help this tax season and someone actually picks up the phone, consider yourself lucky.  The agency has set a goal of answering only 71 percent of calls this year from taxpayers seeking customer service.  If you’re fortunate enough to get through, you can expect to wait an average of 12 minutes, according to a report released Wednesday by an IRS ombudsman.”

Wall St. Journal:  “Does living in a blue state make people blue?  It seems so, according to a new study in Science magazine that ranks states according to their happiness.  The study finds that New Yorkers are the unhappiest people in America and their neighbors in Connecticut come in a close second, followed by Michigan, Indiana, New Jersey, California, and Illinois. And the happiest states? Drum roll, please…Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida, Tennessee, and Arizona.  Eight of the ten happiest states lean right while eight of the ten unhappiest tilt left. While the study by no means proves that being liberal makes people unhappy, it does reflect some of the unfortunate implications of living in a blue state.”

Commerce Clearing House published a special briefing on the Tax Provisions of the Senate’s Health Care Bill:

• Required Individual Coverage
• Affordability Credits
• Enhanced Employer Responsibility
• Small Business Tax Credits
• Medicare Payroll Surtax
• Tax On High-Cost Insurance
• New Caps On FSAs

The Tax Lawyer’s Blog:  “WebCPA reports that Joe Francis of ;Girls Gone Wild’ fame has filed a lawsuit against the IRS for illegal collection activities.”