gross underpayment of North Carolina taxes

I'm a semi-retiree doing deduction bunching (where I do the standard deduction and itemized deductions on alternate years). The trick is to minimize deductions in the "standard" years and maximize them in the "itemized" years. In particular, I wonder how far I can push this with my state (NC) taxes, without running into penalties (other than interest on underpayment).

What I would like to do for 2011, a "standard" year, is to make no estimated tax payments, nor any withholding on the small amount of W-2 income I'm likely to have. Thus, I will pay my entire 2011 state tax liability in 2012, when I file my 2011 return. If all I have to pay is interest, I've clearly come out way ahead, since the state tax paid in 2012 will effectively be deductible from my 2012 federal income (since 2012 will be an "itemized" year), whereas any withholding and estimated tax paid in 2011 will effectively be non-deductible (since I'm taking the standard deduction).

Examining the relevant form:

... it looks like I'll simply have to pay 3.325% in interest, and I'm fine. As best I can tell, Form D-422 provides no additional penalty, regardless of how large my underpayment is. Nor do I see any mention of it here:

The only thing I can think of is that when you ask to have ZERO witholding on a W-4, I believe you attest that you expect no tax liablity, but this can be circumvented simply by claiming a lot of exemptions:

Another way to finesse this, so that technically I am not underpaid, is to make one giant estimated tax payment in January 2012. I'll still have an interest penalty since my payments weren't equal, but it still might look better.

And I missing something, or does someone with North Carolina income tax expertise know something not explained in these links ? Thanks !