Golf Star Phil Mickelson May Bolt California over Taxes
By: Fox News
Updated: January 21, 2013
For golf legend Phil Mickelson, the low 60s makes for a great score on the links -- and a lousy tax rate in his home state of California.
Mickelson said "drastic changes" are ahead for him due to federal and California state tax increases that have pushed his tax rate to what he figures adds up to "62, 63 percent."
The left-hander will talk more about his plans -- possibly moving out of California or even retiring altogether -- before his hometown Farmers Insurance Open, the San Diego-area event that begins Thursday at Torrey Pines.
"It's been an interesting off-season," Mickelson, 42, said Sunday after the final round of the Humana Challenge. "And I'm going to have to make some drastic changes. I'm not going to jump the gun and do it right away, but I will be making some drastic changes."
Mickelson, who lives in Rancho Santa Fe, is unsure exactly what he'll do, but changes will come, he said. If he bolts California, the San Diego native could be the Golden State's answer to actor Gerard Depardieu, who renounced his French citizenship and moved to Russia after the French government tried to jack up taxes on the rich.
"There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and, you know, it doesn't work for me right now," he said. "So I'm going to have to make some changes."
California voters in November approved Proposition 30, which, in addition to raising the state sales tax, carries a menu of new tax brackets that hit millionaires like Mickelson hard. For income exceeding $1 million, the state rate jumped to 13.3 percent from 10.3 percent. For Mickelson, who earned roughly $60 million in 2012, that would be a tax increase of more than $1.8 million.
For the full story:
