Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Burger King Pursues Tim Hortons

Burger King wants to purchase Tim Hortons, the Canadian doughnut chain. You can read all about it here. As my mother-in-law once said on a trip to Canada, those Canadians LOVE their doughnuts.

The deal involves a tax strategy known as inversion, where Burger King's corporate registration will be moved to Canada to take advantage of Canada's lower corporate tax rate. A couple of observations.

I am shocked to learn that even Canada has lower corporate tax rates than the US. In the world of global corporate competition, our tax structure puts us at a disadvantage with the rest of the world.

In the article, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio is calling for a consumer boycott of Burger King. His energies are misplaced. He would do better to work to level the playing field for American business in a global economy. After all, corporations are owned by stockholders like you and me.