Tag: california

Phil Mickelson Needed to Pay 61% in Taxes For His Fame

Phil Mickelson Needed to Pay 61% in Taxes For His Fame

“I might move away from California because of the State taxes here”, quoted Phil Mickelson and guess what? He became the hot topic this past January when he had to sacrifice 61% of his money he earned from of 2013 Open Championship and The Scottish Open in the shape of governments taxes. Steeped tax rates and UK’s policy to collect more taxes on endorsement earnings of non-resident athletes with the rest of the taxes from United States government, were the factors behind this dramatic situation.

Phil Mickelson, Open 2006
Phil Mickelson, Open 2006 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mickelson actually need to pay the same percentage of taxes for both tournaments which doubled his pain. He earned about $ 2,167,500 from both events and his complete tax penalty from these earnings was $ 1,324,800. He would be taking only $ 842,700 along with him. That is discouraging for a successful athlete like him to earn lot of cash and then just let 61% of his earnings be in the buckets of government. This is definitely weird and stressing for him.

Now, everybody knows that governments collect all this money for progressive purposes and impose their strict tax policies upon the rich and other high level earners. But these are not the only reasons for Phil Mickelson having to pay the stepped up taxes. Britain’s strict tax policies for non-resident athletes are also being accused for all this drama. Furthermore, he also needs to pay United States federal taxes and California taxes that combined sum up to 13.3%. That is lot of money to pay for success.

What common people might be thinking about all this? Well their sympathies won’t be in favor of Phil Mickelson because general perception about the millionaires is that they are rich and they should be paying lot of money to the government so that it can be spent on the welfare of the people. The common view about them is that they are famous and rich already and will earn more than general people. But money can only be made by offering something that people want and is therefore inherently good.

Phil was recently ranked at number 7 in Forbes list that consisted of the highest earning athletes around the world but paying this heavy amount of taxes to the government(s) is really a tough thing to do for him. Phil Mickelson did not make any statement regarding this issue. He has to pay all these taxes and he can’t do anything regarding this but to wait until his next earning opportunity. One can imagine his condition right now. It is hard to give away most of your money in that way and without protesting either.

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Former Clients Feel Betrayed By “Tax Lady” Roni Deutch

Thousands of dollars are owed to the IRS by individuals who are looking to anyone for assistance in lowering that debt. Some of those people have looked to the aid of a woman from their TV, who has made assurances that for pennies on the dollar she would get the IRS out of their lives.

For anyone who is looking at a tax debt, Roni Deutch is just the ticket they are looking for. Calling herself the “Tax Lady”, Ms. Deutch can be hard for people to resist. Finding himself embroiled within a dark hole after his divorce, a contractor from the Central Coast became one of the many to fall for her ads. Others have been a Missouri father about to deploy, a woman from Indianapolis in need to sell her home, and a Florida plumber about to lose his plumbing business.

But those are just a handful of the people who have been desperate enough to make that call. Along with countless others, those individuals became clients of the law firm that promised to aid their tax debt problems. Ms. Deutch’s firm based in North Highlands promised to many, but failed to bring them any closer to being out of their troubles with the IRS.

A lawsuit for over 30 million dollars was filed in 2010 by the attorney general for her state, which helped to crumble the firm which was bringing in to each of the partners more than 24 million per year income. That fraud case, as well as some contempt accusations was filed due to clients’ claims that Ms. Deutch failed to do any work for them. The firm is also charged with creating statements of bills that were bogus in the clients’ eyes only as another way to cheat them.

On the 12 of May, Ms. Deutch shut the doors to her firm, while giving a defensive statement outside the offices. Her claims stated that the firm was broke, actually claiming that they owed around 15 million themselves. Still stating in her words that she was everything she had claimed to be.

The state of California continue to make their allegations in echoing support of the Sacremento clients’  as well as numerous people from other states. Those people have contacted the Sacremento Bee in the following days after Ms. Deutch closed the doors of the law firm.

In the courtroom on Friday, Deutch continued her plea that she never committed any type of contempt of court. While the AG’s office went on with their accusations that the firm shredded papers and never paid the refunds to her clients’. With those accusations and alleged violations, neither her attorney nor Ms. Deutch wished to make a statement.

California Faces Battle Over Budget

A budgetary showdown is looming in California over taxes 2010 as a constitutional deadline approaches. California which is the eighth largest economy in the world, faces running out of money if no budget is approved by the first of July. This would force California to issue IOUs as was done in 2009. The California constitution requires any tax increase to be approved by two thirds of the legislators. At the present time the Democrats need four more votes to pass the budget but the Republicans are vowing they will block its passage.

Top ranked Republican Jim Neilsen of the Assembly Budget Committee says there is nothing in the framework of the current budget that deserves his support.

Brown who is now 73, took over the position of governor of California in January of this year. He had pledged to repair fiscal problems in California that give it the worst credit rating of all the states according to Standar & Poor’s. At the beginning of the year California had a deficit of $26 billion. Recent government spending cuts and increased revenue have lowered the gap to $10 billion.

The plan for taxes 2010 that Brown is proposing includes keeping a one percent boost in retail sales tax to 8 and a quarter percent. There is also a proposal to raise the fee to register a car to 1.15 percent of the value of the vehicle. The plan extends the reduction of the annual child tax credit to $99 from the previous amount of $309.