Burger King Is In Talks To Buy Canada's Most Famous Donut Chain To Avoid US Taxes

[applegrove]

Burger King Is In Talks To Buy Canada's Most Famous Donut Chain To Avoid US Taxes

by Rob Wile at Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/burger-king-is-in-talks-to-buy-canadas-most-famous-donut-chain-to-avoid-us-taxes-2014-8

"SNIP.........................



The Wall Street Journal's Liz Hoffman and Dana Mattioli report Burger King is in talks to buy Canadian donut giant Tim Horton's to pull off a "tax inversion" that would see the home of the Whopper move to Canada to avoid corporate levies in the U.S.

The report was confirmed by the Toronto Globe and Mail's Paul Waldie.

"One of the people said a deal between the two companies could be struck soon, though additional details on timing couldn't be learned," Hoffman and Mattioli say. "Together the restaurant companies have a market value of about $18 billion."

We've written a lot about how tax inversions have recently surged in the U.S. as cash-flush companies, looking to make deals, prioritize those with low exposure to what some see as overly burdensome corporate taxes.


..........................SNIP"

[House of Roberts]

1. Free donut with every whopper?

.

[NaturalHigh]

4. That's a heart attack on a plate.

[Fred Sanders]

2. The Canadian government would never allow this....

[Nye Bevan]

6. Really? What Canadian law could be invoked to prevent it? (nt)

[Fred Sanders]

7. Part of the law:

The Investment Canada Act (ICA)[1] is a Canadian Federal law governing large foreign direct investment in Canada. The ICA was one of the first acts of Brian Mulroney's newly elected Progressive Conservative government, receiving royal assent on June 20, 1985. It has been amended at various times, including recently the Economic Action Plan 2013 Act.[1][2] Pertinent regulations include the Investment Canada Regulations, SOR/85-611.[3] The Act empowers the government to forbid foreign investments of "significant" size if they do not present a "net benefit to Canada." As of 2014, Canadian policy is to consider over $354 million "significant."[4] The determination of what substantially constitutes the locus of control of a corporation is governed by the Canadian Ownership and Control Determination Act.[5]

[Nye Bevan]

8. Interesting, thanks (nt)

[former9thward]

37. And I am sure Burger King lawyers know nothing about this.

They should be reading your posts!

[Fred Sanders]

48. Of course they do, I maybe missed your point?

[former9thward]

49. You are suggesting that a major corporation does not know the law.

You said "The Canadian government would never allow this." You are suggesting BK would go to all the trouble and expense of this transaction knowing that Canada will never allow it.

[Fred Sanders]

50. It happens. The ultimate control is not with the corporations, it has happened before, I predict

it will happen again, based on the law and and based on political damage for the government.

You are reading into my post something that is not there.

[NaturalHigh]

3. I've heard they have really good doughnuts.

[applegrove]

5. The coffee itself is really liked up here. People are addicted to it.

I was under the impression it was already owned by an American corporation. I could be wrong.

[Chakab]

31. Tim Horton's merged with Wendy's in the 90s, but that didn't last

very long.

[notadmblnd]

12. I don't like tim hortons donuts, they're dry, tough and chewy

they're also made in a factory shipped frozen and baked in an oven. then they're slathered in icing which they keep in 5 gallon buckets and who knows what crawls through them. I would not eat a tim hortons donut if my life depended on it.

[4b5f940728b232b034e4]

34. Agreed

My teeth aren't strong enough to even try to eat them.

[notadmblnd]

46. lol

[laundry_queen]

39. I hate them too.

I rarely get one unless there's a new flavor and for some reason it's my only chance to get food and I'm really hungry and in a hurry and curious to try the new flavor. I'm always disappointed. The most disappointed I've been is in their lunch menu. Everything I've ever ordered from it was disgusting and bland. Like "I couldn't finish it" disgusting. And anyone who knows me knows that doesn't happen very often.

Their coffee, however, is their redeeming quality. And in the summer, I cannot get enough iced caps. mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[arikara]

30. They used to make them fresh in each store

we'd stop in for coffee sometimes on a night shift and the smell of donuts cooking would be wonderful. But now they pre make them and ship them to the franchises frozen to be thawed / reheated or something. I haven't had one in years, since they started doing that.

And in spite of how some are addicted to it, the coffee sucks too.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

44. That sort of franchise model,

while great for 'uniformity of product' from one store to the next, is horrible in terms of food quality. I'd rather have things be a bit different from place to place, but have good quality local product.

[Cha]

9. Shame on them.. after all the American taxpayers who have gobbled up their burgers.

And, they don't want to help out America's infrastructure.. let that burden go to the people who do pay their taxes?!

thanks apple

[jambo101]

52. I'd boycott Burger King

However their product is so bad i dont go there anyway.

I'd think in Americas current financial crisis companies resorting to weaseling out of paying their taxes doesnt go un noticed by the tax paying citizens.

[Cha]

53. I'm vegan.. have been for a long time. So, I'm no help with the boycotting business..

be awesome if Protestors in a big city on the Mainland carried signs denoting exactly what burger king is doing.

burger king is making too much money so they're trying to wriggle out of paying American Taxes. Shame.

[cui bono]

10. I'm sensing a trend.

Time to close up that loophole.

Yeah, right. Like that'll ever happen.

[notadmblnd]

11. Ohhhh donuts substituting for hamburger buns

[mackerel]

13. I didn't know Tim Horton's did donuts. All I ever hear about is how amazing they're coffee is.

[applegrove]

15. And Tim Horton's franchisee owners don't even know what it is that

makes the coffee so good. We have theories it is msg or extra caffeine or robusto beans. But never has the secret got out.

[mackerel]

24. Someone told me it was Cocoa beans. I'll bet it's actually cinnamon.

[applegrove]

26. And then there is the rumor/story of the American who got sick

off of Tim Horton's coffee and demanded to know what was in it....nicotine. I've heard at least two versions of that story.

[NealK]

32. Urban legend.

"But Tim Hortons coffee does not include nicotine, MSG, an usually high level of caffeine, or any similar additives. Just as the USA has its Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to oversee the safety of commercially-sold ingestibles, so Canada has its Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)."

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/timhortons.asp

[applegrove]

33. I assumed as much.

[laundry_queen]

40. Could just be how they roast

LOL for my degree my major project for my capstone business course was doing a case study on the different coffee companies in Canada. Apparently, THE most important thing in coffee making is how the beans are roasted. Each company has proprietary information on their roasting process. So it could be that.

[applegrove]

42. That makes sense.

[jambo101]

43. Tims fare

Their menu Is a lot more than just doughnuts and coffee.

http://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/index.php

[RufusTFirefly]

14. What?? You mean a "double-double" would be replaced by "Have it your way"?

Canadians are eminently reasonable people, but they can only be pushed so far...

First they came for Tim Horton's, and I said nothing
Because I didn't like doughnuts.
Then they came for Second Cup...

[laundry_queen]

41. LOL! nt

[LynneSin]

16. I'd boycott Burger King but I haven't eaten there in decades

Was never fond of their food in the first place.

[aggiesal]

17. They benefit from our infrastructure ...

roads, phones, tax breaks,
but why pay for those benefits?

This has to stop.

[cstanleytech]

18. Yes it does need to stop but with the politicans and courts being for sale

I dont see any changes to those things any time soon happening.

[Pauldg47]

29. Bingo!

[americannightmare]

19. It only stops if people stop...

giving them their money!

[frazzled]

20. Empty threat: this will go the way of Walgreen's

No company with a public sales component can afford to pull this stunt. It's one thing that everyone agrees on: it's unpatriotic to take your business and leave the country with it. The public backlash to Walgreen's was overwhelming. If Burger King were to do this it would be their death.

Something's telling me these companies are threatening inversion in an attempt to get Congress to lower their taxes here.

[applegrove]

21. I think you are right. They may want to bully the government

into reducing taxes. Fortunately it looks like they are only hurting themselves, and how they are perceived, not Obama.

[former9thward]

55. Warren Buffett disagrees with you.

Yesterday he entered the deal to finance it.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/140826/buffett-help-finance-burger-kings-acquisition-tim-hortons-wsj

[frazzled]

58. Looks like it

Perhaps BK is already such a dying business anyway that it can only benefit by going donut. I don't eat at either one of those places, so it's hard to say that I would boycott them. (Went to a Tim Horton's in Vancouver a few years ago and it sucked big time.)

[former9thward]

59. I have never heard of Tim Horton's before all this came in the news.

But I don't think BK or all the rest is a dying business. Buffett studies his investments before throwing money at them and his track record is history.

[frazzled]

60. Really? Tim Hortons is practically synonymous with Canada

I admit people must eat this kind of stuff (for economic reasons, I hope; not the taste or nutritional benefits), but my days of eating fast food are over. I'm sure Warren Buffett must know what he's doing, but it doesn't mean it's not sad. Greasy burgers and donuts don't sound like the future to me, but I'm sure there's money to be made off of it in the short term.

[DAMANgoldberg]

22. Wendy's bought them years ago in 1995...

and it didn't turn out well for either company. Then again, Wendy's also merged with Arby's and that did not end well either. I happen to like Wendy's, I worked for them here for 2 years, not in management (the local franchise is clueless in that regard, but...) but whenever they get away from fresh off-the-grill burgers and tasty chicken to be things they aren't, trouble seems to find them. During my OTR trucking career, I have had a chance to sample Tim Horton's, and it's not bad, but not anything to write home about, and don't seem to work beyond the Great Lakes and Northeast US.

Burger King is grasping at straws now and this won't end well either.

[Barack_America]

23. What does a Canadian riot look like?

We may just find out.

[applegrove]

25. Here is a famous picture from a Canadian riot:

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[fadedrose]

27. Oh no!!

I don't eat at Burger King, but it's nice to take the family there once or twice a month, relax with a cup of coffee and watch the grandkids climb all over the playground stuff they have there....their parents can enjoy their food which they can't do at grown--up restaurants.....

I wish they'd had places like that when I was a kid.

Their kids' meals are a rip-off because of the junkie toy, but the kids so enjoy themselves there, and moms and dads could sit and eat in peace while the little ones are crawling all over that big thing.

I hope the government can make some adjustments so that this kind of place doesn't leave America.

[former9thward]

57. Posters seem to think BK is leaving.

Nobody is leaving anywhere. The corporation would be based in Canada. The only thing leaving would be taxes paid to the U.S. government.

[littlemissmartypants]

28. Good riddance. We waste forty percent of our food anyway.

You cannot get blood out of a turnip.

Eventually all of the dying food vendors will gasp their last breath out of that dollar menu.

The main reason they continue to make money is our mindless addiction to high fructose corn syrup.

Back away and the beast dies.

Good riddance, I say.

Thanks for your post, applegrove.

Love, Peace and Shelter. Lmsp 🙌

[gtar100]

35. And no doubt Republican lawmakers are all for it.

After 30 years of virtual control of all legislation, they have turned our tax laws against our best interests. If there were any sanity to their nonsense, the tax incentives would be on the side of corporations staying here.

But republicans are useful idiots for capitalists.

[former9thward]

56. Warren Buffett is also all for it.

He is financing it.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/140826/buffett-help-finance-burger-kings-acquisition-tim-hortons-wsj

[kysrsoze]

36. F**k Burger King and F**k Tim Horton's. They both suck hard.

I'd say I'll never go to Burger King again, but that's already a given.

[Initech]

38. Hey IRS why aren't you stopping this bullshit???????

[oldhippie]

47. How would the IRS stop it?

Do you think they make tax law?

[jambo101]

45. Most Canadians dont care/

Tim Hortons is just another fast food joint who cares who owns it.

[KamaAina]

51. Take off, ya hosers!

[laundry_queen]

54. Apparently this has been confirmed.

According to the CBC here in Canada. BK bought Tim's. This makes it the third largest fast food restaurant in the world.

[KamaAina]

61. Their latest ad campaign is "to change the five-dollar bill".

Apparently, to this.

[jambo101]

62. BKs reply

I sent them an email saying i dont agree with their tax dodge,heres their glib reply=

Dear Mr. Rutherford,

Thank you for reaching out. We're not moving, we're just growing and
finding ways to serve you better.

As part of the recent announcement, 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.


Sincerely,
BURGER KING® restaurants Guest Relations