Is Phil Mickelson Being Taxed Into Retirement?

Add one more to the list of those being hit hard by the tax laws of our country. I’m sure that wasn’t what you were expecting as the opening line of an article about the potential retirement of golfer Phil Mickelson, but it’s true. The 22^nd ranked golfer in the world said he is considering making some drastic changes due to the fact that he says he is being taxed at an exorbitant rate.

After the final round of the Humana Challenge, “Lefty” made some very mysterious comments about his future. His comments left open the possibility of anything from retiring from the game of golf to moving to Canada. Mickelson said he would delve deeper into the topic at a later date, but did not say if that date was in the next week or year.

During the press conference, Mickelson said, “Yeah.  I’ll probably go into it more next year or next week.  But if you add up, 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.  So I’ve got to make some decisions on what I’m going to do.”

He also said that whatever this particular situation is had a lot to do with his decision not to join the new ownership group of the San Diego Padres and explained why he might be more inclined to speak further on the topic next week:

“…I’ll probably be in the media center and I’ll probably be a little more open to it because San Diego is where a lot more things, it’s where I live, it’s where the Padre thing was a possibility, and it’s where my family is.  And it just seems like a better fit than right here off of 18 on Palm Springs.”

In a time where many people are being hit hard by the financial situation in our country, I don’t think anyone can argue that Mickelson is living paycheck to paycheck or taking out a payday loan to keep the water on. At the same time, there’s a lot to be said if it is more beneficial for a professional athlete to retire than continue to ply his trade due to the amount of money that is extracted from his earnings by the government.

For a link to the full transcript of the press conference, click here

You can view all of Carl’s RantSports articles here and follow him on Twitter @CarlConradRS.

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