PHIL MICKELSON was right on the money when he said the other day he might have to leave California because of its new upper-income tax bracket of 13.3 percent.

When you add in the top federal rate of 39.6 percent, plus all the Social Security, Medicare, self-employment and disability taxes Mickelson has to pay — and considering that his golf winnings and endorsement fees are all ordinary income — the guy’s overall tax rate has probably surpassed 60 percent.

If he moved to Florida, Texas, Washington or one of the other zero-income-tax states, his overall tax rate would  fall to less than 50 percent, and the difference would surely be many millions of dollars a year for a guy like Mickelson.

Of course, he was instantly criticized by some commentators for being selfish, greedy, whatever. Since that discussion — like President Barack Obama’s obsession with calling for “fair” taxes on the rich — involves a personal value judgment, we’ll leave it up to you to decide whether there’s such a thing as a moral obligation to pay the highest tax rate that might apply to you.

But it is worth considering the economic policy implications of Mickelson’s statement. And one thing is for sure: If Mickelson decided to move to a jurisdiction with lower taxes, he’d be following in some well worn footsteps.
In the early 1960s, British income tax rates were sky high, leading to a mass exodus of upper-income people from that country.

The Beatles didn’t just write about the phenomenon in their 1966 hit, “Taxman” (“Let me tell you how it will be ... there’s one for you, 19 for me”), they did something about it — they all left the country. So did many other successful British musicians, including Phil Collins, Elton John, Sting, Freddy Mercury, Rod Stewart and all the members of the Rolling Stones. Likewise actors such as Sean Connery and Michael Caine.

Meanwhile, U.S. companies with worldwide operations have become very adept at moving their profits to low-tax countries and their expenses to high-tax ones. The list includes GE, Pfizer, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and many others.

Nowadays, even for companies that operate strictly inside the United States, it’s very common for them to set up shop in states with low tax burdens. Any CEO would tell you he’d rather open a new manufacturing plant in Texas or Arizona than in California.

Two years ago, when NBC superstar LeBron James signed with the Miami Heat for $17 million a year, instead of a rumored offer of $19 million a year from the Knicks, it was widely reported that he took the lower offer because he’d have paid so much more in taxes if he lived in New York.

One of the interesting things about people and companies who derive income from many sources is that they usually have to pay taxes every place they earn it. A professional baseball player, for example, may have to file 10 or 15 state tax returns every year — one for each state where he played a game. If he lived in California, he could take a credit for the taxes paid to other jurisdictions, but since California has the highest rate, he’d still owe taxes here on everything he earned everywhere.

And that’s why so few golfers at this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am live in California. (It sure isn’t because we have lousy weather and bad golf courses.) In fact, as you can see from the tables that appear on page 17 RE, of the top 50 lifetime PGA money-earners playing in this year’s Pro-Am, more than half live in Nevada, Florida, Texas or Arkansas — all states with no personal income tax. Only four (and that includes Mickelson) live in California. And among the all-time top 50 money winners on the PGA Tour, besides Mickelson, just one lives in The Golden State.

So, despite Obama’s populist rhetoric, it’s indisputably true that high tax rates can actually reduce government tax revenues, and that they definitely discourage initiative and hard work. For some people, it’s a matter of not putting in extra hours or taking risks because the rewards aren’t high enough. For others, it’s a matter of getting out of Dodge.

Or, as Tiger Woods said when he was asked about Mickelson’s threat to leave California because of its tax rates, “I moved out of here back in 1996 for that reason.”