st.djura / Shutterstock.com
Customers definitely aren’t having it their way over at Burger King. In fact, fans of the fast food chain are upset that the U.S.-based company may be packing up and heading to Canada.
It’s all part of a plan by BK to avoid U.S. taxes through a merger deal with Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons. The new company would be headquartered across the border and BK would save a ton of money in taxes. “The corporate tax rate in the U.S. is 35 percent, the highest in the world. Canada’s is about 15 percent,” reports The Huffington Post. This process of American companies buying smaller international firms and relocating is called a “tax inversion” and is more than frowned upon by the U.S. government as even President Obama recently vowed to stop tax inversions. Burger King would still pay U.S. taxes on domestic sales.
People are taking to BK’s Facebook page to voice their outrage and have even threatened a boycott. “Thousands of Burger King’s seven-million-plus Facebook fans have described the fast-food restaurant with words like ‘traitor’ and ‘un-American’,” reports Business Insider.
Buying Tim Hortons will also help BK compete with rivals McDonald’s and Taco Bell in the fast-food war over breakfast.
But a boycott could stop the BK-TimHortons merger. When consumers vowed to boycott Walgreen recently, the chain axed its plan to re-incorporate in low-tax Switzerland. More than 300,000 signed a petition to boycott the chain. The same pressure is being planned for BK. According to Roger Hickey, the co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, which spearheaded the Walgreen petition, the group will launch a similar public plea within the next few days.
There is another petition being organized on MoveOn.org. And leftist Occupy Democrats group is calling for a boycott as well. Politicians have even gotten into the act. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) has urged customers to eat at Wendy’s or White Castle and to skip Burger King.
“Burger King’s decision to abandon the United States means consumers should turn to Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers or White Castle sliders,” the Ohio Democrat said in a statement. “Burger King has always said ‘Have it Your Way’; well my way is to support two Ohio companies that haven’t abandoned their country or customers.”
Shareholders however seem to like the relocation idea. The company’s stock price jumped nearly 20 percent to $32.40 on Monday.
