Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Burger King’s Facebook Whopper of a Lie

Burger King wants us to believe they are not doing this corporate inversion. Did legal and marketing conspire to put out this misleading FB post?
We hear you. We’re not moving, we’re just growing and finding ways to serve you better. As part of the announcement made today, both Burger King Corp. and Tim Hortons will continue to operate as independent brands. We’ll just be under common ownership. Our headquarters will remain in Miami where we were founded more than 60 years ago and business will continue as usual at our restaurants around the world. The decision to create a new global QSR leader with Tim Hortons is not tax-driven – it’s about global growth for both brands. BKC will continue to pay all of our federal, state and local U.S. taxes. We’re proud of the heritage of Burger King and will maintain our long-standing commitment to our employees, franchisees and the local communities we serve. The WHOPPER isn’t going anywhere.
Burger King Corporation (BKC) is the U.S. subsidiary of Burger King Worldwide. BKW is their stock ticker for a reason. Of course, the U.S. subsidiary is staying in Miami but when the parent corporation relocates to Canada, the U.S. tax obligations of Burger King will be cut in half as they will no longer be subject to the repatriation tax. How stupid does Burger King think we are? And yes – it is “Perfectly Legal”.

2 comments:

FuzzyFace said...

Stupid indeed if we think this won’t keep on happening. When there’s a lot of money to be saved by simply changing the location of a nation’s headquarters, why would any sane company stay in the US?

ProGrowthLiberal said...

Fuzzy - I agree. The repatriation tax is easily avoided. I would argue that Congress should find something else - like arming the IRS to really enforce the transfer pricing rules.