Burger King Becomes A Canadian Corporation To Save On Taxes – Here’s How It Directly Hurts America


Burger King has always worked hard to maintain a strong American brand. However, when it comes to paying its dues back to the country in taxes, the company could soon sing the Canadian national anthem instead of the American one.

It is quite evident now that the company has played a devious hand by purchasing a doughnut company in Canada called Tim Hortons and using the purchase to claim that the whole Burger King empire is really a Canadian corporation, and not American at all.

America has made Burger King among the top fast-food chains in the world, but the company clearly wants to dodge the tax it owes to the country. Though eventually the Burger King Corporation will save only $400 million in U.S. taxes, claiming the company to be Canadian instead of American, the move will help its main owners save almost $800 million. That’s a total of $1.2 billion of money which America won’t be entitled to collect.

Burger King wants to be seen as an all-American brand, and it is quite happy to reap the benefits from taxpayer subsidies. However, when it comes time to give back to the nation, the corporation is doing everything it can to get out of paying its fair share of taxes, and it badly hurts America.

Burger King Employees make just about $9 per hour. Despite the fact that no employee is scheduled to work for the entire week, for consideration sake, let us assume an employee works 40 hours. This means that an average employee earns about $360 a week, or just under $19,000 a year — and that’s before taxes, which are deducted directly out of the meager paycheck. It’s no wonder that besides having to take up other jobs, Burger King employees have to rely on food stamps and Medicaid to support their families. If one considers the entire Burger King workforce, American tax-payers end up shelling out close to $356 million each year just to support their employees.

Now that Burger King/Tim Horton merger is complete, it is, from a legal perspective, a Canadian company. However, Burger King will continue to market itself as an American brand when it comes to making money off U.S. consumers and taxpayers. But when tax time rolls around, the company and its major owners will be singing “O Canada.”

[Image Credit | AP Photo/Erie Times-News, Christopher Millette]

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