Phil Mickelson made his 2013 debut this past week at the Human Challenge, and didn’t waste any time making headlines. No those headlines were not related to his play, which wasn’t anything to write home about by the way (T37). Instead Mickelson took the opportunity in his post round press conference on Sunday to speak about the new impending tax laws and how they may force him to move his family outside of the United States to avoid them.
Mickelson claims his take rate will be hiked up to something around 63%. At least he won’t have to pay taxes on his many gambling endeavors, whether it be from trips to Las Vegas or to online gambling sites like www.partycasino.com! But in all seriousness, Mickelson makes close to $40 million per year between winnings, appearance fees and endorsements, and is considered one of the highest paid athletes in any sport. So 63% of that is a hefty chunk… but still won’t leave him clipping coupons.
“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’s 62, 63 percent,” he said. “So I’ve got to make some decisions on what I’m going to do.”
He then went on to say, “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.”
Mickelson admitted that those financial issues were part of the reason he pulled out from a possible part ownership deal with his beloved San Diego Padres back in August.
He tees it up again this week on Tour at the Farmers Insurance Open, where he mentioned he would speak further about this topic.
As always with Phil Mickelson, he leaves us wondering, “What will Phil do next?”. Or maybe instead, “Where will Phil GO next?”.
Wow. What a jackass.