I was listening to the flap over Phil Michelson talking about Cally and taxes one day and then him apologizing for voicing his opinion. One of the talking heads got me to thinkin'.  Their talking about a 63% tax rate (fed and state combined).  Think about that, 63%.  In Mickelson's vocation, the first 11 holes of an 18 hole game is for the government, no pay to him.  Sound fair to you?  What would you do if your employer told you he was going to keep 63% of your pay and give it to poor people or waste it on some other program or just lose it all together?  What would your answer be?  I think Mickelson is worth about 150 mill so the government keeps 94.5 million.  Why?   What did they do to earn that?  You come back with well he gets to keep 56 million and I retort so?  He made the money, he pays salaries and does far more good with his money then the government ever would.  Man, we the people, are getting ripped off!!!!


What say you?

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Phil ONLY made $4.2 million on the PGA tour, but his total income including endorsements, etc. for the year was in the area of $55-65 Million.

I TOTALLY agree with him complainng about how high his taxes are.

COMBINED taxes both Federal and State (of California) he's estimating 63%.

That's a BIG CHUNK of what was HIS MONEY being squandered on people that don't want to do anything for it.

I haven't read his 'apology'.

I saw NO REASON to apologize other than he's a professional golfer and has been brought up to expect to hold to a higher standard of ethics than most.

They ALL pay their own way, ALL of the time, and are ONLY paid on performance.  

Before he moves out of Cali maybe he should hire a better tax accountant.

If you add up the top fed rate of 39.6% and the top current state tax of 13.3% that adds up to 52.9% in total income taxes. The disability and unemployment taxes he talked about are part of the payroll tax he pays. But he only pays that tax on the first $113,000 of his estimated $50 million to $60 million he earns per year.

So he would probably get up to around 55% in total taxes. But that would be with no deductions. How many wealthy people pay the full marginal rate? Are we to believe that a pro golfer doesn't have somebody do his taxes. Hell, he's got enough money for a team of CPA's to put together some basic tax planning.

First off, you can deduct your state taxes from the federal taxes. So whether he's in Cali or Fla he can deduct those taxes altogether.

And all his travel expenses would be deductible. And all those charities he gives to.... deductible. And most pro athletes have their income in a trust which has other favorable tax benefits.

According to the IRS, the vast majority of the wealthy don't pay anywhere near the top possible marginal tax rates.

Either Mickelson is fibbing or he's doesn't have a very good accountant. Which proves that you don't have to be smart to make millions.

dsc

Read it again Duane. It's 55% before deductions. He could probably get it down to under 20% with a decent accountant. But you are probably right that I pay a higher rate than that because payroll, sales, and gas taxes are more regressive than the fed income tax.

Start a flat 10% tax on everyone equally spread across the board, the government would have more money than they could spend, OMG can you imagine that, but it will never happen, can you imagine how many IRS folks would have to go on unemployment, and all the tax consulants and CPA's that would put out of business.  But there would have to be special tax emptions for business so they can re-invest money into their business, not just for salaries, but for new equipment and so forth...Talk about a "Change" pipe dream, if you make 1K in wages or if you make 1 million 10% auto to the feds and then whatever the state would come up with...!!!!!....Then I woke up and smelled the roses...!!!

Wooliebuger1 wrote on 01/24/13 at 8:29am:


Although I completely agree with you idea of a low flat tax, I strongly disagree with the highlighted comment.  This gov't is capable of wasting an infinite amount of money.

Yesterday at Home Depot, I was charged 14 cents per 2 x 10 x 16' "CA Lumber fee", and 35 cents per gallon "CA Paint fee"

The cashier said that the fee wasn't there before lunch, but started automatically adding it after he got back from lunch

And got a notice that my Buick lease payment went up $27 / mo because of a new "use tax" ?

WTF?

  As of January 1, 2013 all lumber products in California got a 1% tax slapped on in addition to our already escalating sales tax.  Didn't know about the new paint tax Dave, but I'm not surprised.
  I bought a load of redwood at the end of December and didn't know about the tax increase until I went back to the lumber yard January 4th for more.  I'm just glad it was for my personal use and I didn't have to explain it to a customer.
  California seems determined to stifle the economy's recovery.  That tax will be a considerable amount on every building project in the state.

over4t wrote on 01/25/13 at 8:19am:


Wonder what for though? Will all the $$ plant more trees? Or make less smoke when the wood burns? Cause it must be for something useful right?

hogracer3d wrote on 01/25/13 at 8:54am:


Its for the kids... its going to the school. lol

And we voted for all these taxes!!

  When I moved to the Grass Valley area mid '80s the gold mines had already shut down but the logging industry was one of the largest employers in the county with, what seemed like, a lumber mill on every corner.  Except for one or 2 small mom 'n pop operations they're all gone now, mostly victims of EPA's increasingly rigid rules.  There's very little logging locally now for the same reason.
  The last of the big logging outfits, with well over 100 trucks and all the other equipment now has to go farther to cut, then haul the logs down the road another 40 miles  to a mill in the heavily populated Lincoln-Roseville area.
 I can't even imagine the costs they have had to retrofit and upgrade all those big rigs, not to mention the diesel fuel $$ at 4-5 mpg.  The pollution, even with these costs, exceeds by far what the mills put out.
 I can't buy fresh, local lumber any more, costs are more and a lot of   local people are out of jobs.  Thanks to the bureaucrats. I'm glad I retired.