"Mickelson expects to make 'drastic' changes because of political, economic climate"
That's the headline in his hometown paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune. Which means Phil Mickelson's Wednesday press conference at Torrey Pines for the Farmers Insurance Open should be quite the lively affair following his post round comments at Sunday's Humana Challenge.
Tod Leonard explains the circumstances and primary issue Mickelson intends to elaborate on Wednesday in his hometown.
Mickelson, 42, was responding to a question about why, in a conference call last Monday, he referred to “what’s gone on the last couple of months, politically,” when talking about the semi-retirement of fellow tour pro Steve Stricker.
“I think we’re all going to have to find things that work for us,” Mickelson said on the call. "I think we're all going to have our own kind of way of handling things, handling time in our career, handling what's gone on the last couple of months politically. I think we're all going to have to find things that work for us."
Asked if there was a correlation between his views and his withdrawal from interest in the Padres, Mickelson said, “Yeah, absolutely.”
I guess that rules out Phil watching the inauguration Monday or sending Governor Moonbeam some Callaways!
Alex Miceli fills us in on Mickelson's primary gripe.
Last fall, Californians approved Proposition 30, which boosts the state income tax to 13.3 percent on earnings of $1 million or more. That’s a 29.1 percent increase from the previous “millionaires tax” in a state with tremendous fiscal issues.
Compound that increased liability with the recent changes to the federal tax code, which bumps the top bracket to 39.6 percent from 35 percent to avoid going over the so-called fiscal cliff, and Mickelson’s tax hit is substantial.
And this...
“If you add up all the federal and you look at the disability and the unemployment and the Social Security and the state, my tax rate is 62, 63 percent,” Mickelson said. “I’ve got to make some decisions on what I am going to do.”
So here's the good news as I see it: this will take some of the focus off of Tuesday night's players meeting where the PGA Tour will be discussing a decidedly first world problem in the form of anchoring belly putters.
The bad news? Depending on how Mickelson presents his case (he's quite good and comes off as sincere when he's passionate about something), he could either (A) shed light on legitimate issues surrounding the tax code or (B) brand PGA Tour upper echelon golfers as suffering the firstest of first world problems and merely reinforce negative stereotypes about the sport and those who play it.
Should be an interesting day at Torrey Pines!
Geoff
**Tony Nitti of Forbes analyzed Mickelson's situation and was not sympathetic:
For starters, courtesy of President Obama’s re-election and the subsequent fiscal cliff negotiations, Mickelson will experience an increase in his top tax rate on ordinary income from 35% to 39.6%, and an increase in his top rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends from 15% to 20%. Clearly, when faced with tax hikes of that magnitude, it stops making economic sense for Mickelson to continue to swing a metal stick up to 70 times a day in exchange for the $48 million he earns on an annual basis.
But it gets worse. Thanks to the expiration of the temporary 2% reduction in the payroll tax rate on the first $113,700 of self-employment income, Mickelson will have to fork over an extra $2,274 in tax during 2013, an additional burden that makes it hard to justify briskly walking as many as five miles per day, four days a week. In long pants, nonetheless.
Reader Comments (106)
And, his subcutaneous underlayer will help with the bitter winter cold.
Oh and even if Phil was losing 60% of his income to taxes, he'd still have made 24mil dollars last year after taxes (using forbes estimate of 60mil in earnings). Somehow I think most of us could live on 24 million dollars.
You trying to explain tax law is just as ridiculous.
It's because of sheep like some of the people in this comments section that California is able to keep raising taxes while providing worse and worse public service.
Makes me wonder how Jack and Arnie made it back in the day.
Socialist President? Let's do a little exercise in arithmetic (and yes, it's adjusted for inflation, @ taxfoundation(dot)org):
1986 Top marginal rate on $358,782 and above: 50% (married, filing jointly)
2011 Top marginal rate on $379,150 and above: 35% (married, filing jointly)
I hear that the rate might go up a point or two on incomes of $400-450,000 a year. My heart aches for them. It really does. And for teachers, too. Who according to the current zeitgeist are little more than moochers and parasites who don't even work a full year.
Anyway, Ronald Reagan was a socialist. Damn. Who knew?
We can talk about tax rates all day. But can anybody actually argue that any of our tax money is being spent wisely,
by anybody in government?
California sucks right now. Anybody with the ability to save 8 to 13 percent simply by moving
is at least going to look at it
So, Pat, are your feet nailed to the ground in the Golden State? Or does your right heel come up on your backswing? I haven't really lived in that many different places, but have spent a lot of time in Florida and very close to it. The absence of a state income tax there hasn't exactly created Heaven on Earth. Except maybe for those in Arnie's and Jack's and Gov. Scottdemort's tax bracket. I guess that's your point. And Phil's. But really, it all depends on what the money is being spent on, doesn't it? Why, I even remember Dick Cheney (!), talking about a "peace dividend" as the Soviet Union dissolved along with the Warsaw Pact. What the hell happened?
And will someone ask Governor Moonbeam what he thinks about Phil's distress and his plans to address it? Geoff?
I am now a teaching professional
High taxes the least of my issues.
Had I qualified for Champions Tour instead of sucking, I would certainly consider Nevada.
I'll be sad if Phil leaves, but I don't blame him in the slightest. We are overtaxed here in California with crowded freeways, under-performing schools (my apologies to the teachers in this thread -- our schools are subpar in large part due to nonchalant parents and students) and pothole-ridden streets.
Parts of California are like a third-world country. :(
sucks - we'll cut you a break on a star map during spring break when you return on vaca.
Proof points are as follows:
-- Birdies for the brave -- The money received goes to Special Operations Warrior Foundation and/or Homes for Our Troops. The Special Operations Charity was founded a quarter of a century ago and donations that go there help to provide college eduction for children of special operations forces that have been killed in action. The Homes for Our Troops charity was established to lend a hand and funding for new or handicap adapted homes for soldiers with serious disabilities or injuries.
-- With one of his financial supporters, Exxon-Mobil, Mickelson and wife Amy are working to provide innovative programs to improve science and math programs in our elementary schools. As a result of their efforts, programs are being conducted to help train teachers at the elementary level so that their instructional skills will be enhanced and they can develop motivational teaching techniques that will hopefully raise young students' interest , The result of more sustained interest is likely to be an improvement in their ability in math and science which will help to prepare them for future careers in those fields. Mickelson and his wife appear on television promotions for this special Partnership with Exxon.
-- Mickelson's Smart Start program gave disadvantaged San Diego children clothes and school supplies. "Phil was in the Wal-Mart parking lot at 5:30 a.m. helping kids, shaking their hands," says Lindo Park Elementary principal Ginger Van Zant. "The kids were agog, and they loved to meet his kids, who were little helpers. Homeless families are really struggling, and they couldn't comprehend getting two pairs of shoes at once. They were like, 'I get to choose another pair?' It set a tone for the school year so that the kids could be the best they could be."
-- After contributing $250,000 to Hurricane Katrina relief, Mickelson pledged to donate his prize money from the 2006 Zurich Classic in New Orleans. He finished T15, but decided that $ 81,720 was insufficient and added another $250,000.
I'll ignore the rest of the partisan claptrap. Let's just focus on the factual numbers.
PTL
<<<sigh>>> I miss the good old days here, before politics entered this site. :)
If they paid their bill the way we pay o...ur taxes, it would go something like this ...
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do ...
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve ball.
"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20". Drinks for the ten men would now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share?
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by a higher percentage the poorer he was, to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using,
and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.
And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% saving).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% saving).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% saving).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% saving).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% saving).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% saving).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got a dollar out of the $20 saving," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “but he got $10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!"
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back, when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him.
But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction.
Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics.
That's right! And for those covetous of a society in which the most exalted members are state and municipal employees, welcome home!
Sadly, for everyone else, particularly those mindful of equitable remuneration for people like teachers, the tax debate is at best interlocutory. The true problem, as embodied by Calpers, is unsustainable spending, irrespective of tax rates. California's fiscal situation will shortly become living proof of Herbert Stein's famous maxim, "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."
Phil should have seen this coming here in CA- Browns a world class class warrior...Prop 30 is only the beginning for these socialists