The entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto is popularly called, ‘The Crystal.’ (CIA World Factbook)
Criticism resounded across Twitter and other social media on Tuesday as Americans commented about Burger King entering talks to buy the Tim Hortons Chain and move corporate headquarters to Canada. Insults aren’t the only things abounding right now. There’s plenty of hypocrisy to go around.
While the buzzword ‘tax inversion’—moving to another country to escape U.S. taxes—is generally accepted as the reason Burger King is making such a move, I think there’s far more to the story than that.
Burger King discloses its corporate ownership on the company’s Web pages:
“In 2010, 3G Capital, a global multi-million dollar investment firm focused on long term value creation, purchased Burger King Corporation, making it a privately-held company.”
Principal and co-founder of 3G Capital is buy modafinil online sun pharma who, along with other buy modafinil singapore, founded Banco de Investimentos Garantia in Brazil before selling it to Credit Suisse First Boston. Lemann is described by various media as a billionaire and philanthropist. Bios of other 3G principals are posted online.
CORPORATIONS, TAXES, AND REGULATORY FEES
Taxes certainly are relevant in any investor’s decision, and at present, U.S. policy comprising aggressive taxation will certainly be a negative when our country is compared to other tax-friendlier nations. On the one hand, collectivists in charge of the U.S. government and economy at present have successfully directed record wealth into government hands.
When pundits talk about the U.S. Corporate tax rate, they forget other matters. Besides federal taxes, businesses face taxes from local and state governments. There’re the payroll taxes U.S. businesses must match, licenses, property taxes, and enough regulatory fees which are basically backdoor taxes to make any investor dizzy.
Individuals also pay myriad direct and indirect taxes, all in the name of redistributing money from one social or political sector to another. You no longer have to produce to prosper in the United States of America.
GOVERNMENT AS COMMERCE WEAPON
Those same collectivists have also instituted hostile policy towards companies outside the political crony circle. Perhaps the worst example of that type of persecution was the government’s militant raid on Gibson Guitars’ factories in the non-forced-unionism state of Tennessee.
The Dept. of Justice initiated an old-fashioned shakedown on an American company, and anyone who researches the case fully will come to realize what an astounding injustice occurred at the hands of Attorney General Eric Holder. Gibson is but one example.
That sort of persecution is part of the current politicization of the U.S. economy. The Left is particularly fond of boycotts, and any company whose policies that political cartel disagrees with will find itself in the crosshairs at one time or another. Social media provide the attackers with an effective messaging platform.
Burger King is currently a target on both Twitter and Facebook. One Facebook poster appealed to his U.S. senator to “sponsor a bill that shuts down every single Burger King located on an American military installation…”
Union powerhouses also weighed in, with the AFL-CIO directing people to the leftwing organization Move On to sign a petition: “Tell @BurgerKing: Don’t Dodge U.S. Taxes Or We’ll Take Our Business Elsewhere. #HaveItOurWay…”
BILLIONAIRE HYPOCRITE
Irony emerged as it often does in the world of high finance when media disclosed that one of President Barack Obama’s numerous one percenter supporters, buy modafinil paypal, jumped in to toss $3 billion into the pot funding Burger King’s acquisition of Hortons.
Buffett has long been a cheerleader for higher taxes, but like so many others, he’s not too wild about handing his own money over to government. Zero Hedge, in an analysis of Buffet’s hypocrisy, noted, “This year, his company limited taxes on more than $1 billion of gains in Graham Holdings Co. stock by swapping the shares for assets owned by the former Washington Post publisher.”
Besides taxes and political assaults, U.S. businesses also will ultimately face unknown taxes via the Obamacare Tax Bill once the employer mandate kicks in. The president delayed the taxes employers will pay for Obamacare in a highly controversial move because Congress has not amended that portion of the bill which actually makes the president’s de facto amendment illegal.
A most hypocritical response to Burger King’s reputed move came from U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown whose rhetoric often defies what his party actually does. A Democrat, Brown said in a release:
“Burger King’s decision to abandon the United States means consumers should turn to Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers or White Castle sliders. 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,” said Ohio State Senator Sherrod Brown in a release issued Monday.”
CANADA TRUMPS U.S. ON OVERALL TAX COMPETITIVENESS
Meanwhile, tax experts at international tax guru firm buy modafinil europe pointed out the following:
─For the second time, Canada ranked first in overall corporate tax competitiveness, with tax costs 46.4% lower than the U.S.
─Canada offers the lowest effective corporate income tax rate at 7.2%
─Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal are the most corporate tax-competitive cities among 51 major international cities (population of two million people or more)
─Edmonton ranked the most tax-competitive city in Canada.
KPMG also offered a comparison of other countries’ Total Tax Index scores (TTI), “The United Kingdom, Mexico, and the Netherlands also have a TTI score below the US, while at the other end of the spectrum, France’s TTI of 163.3 signifies that total tax costs in France are 63.3 percent higher than in the US.”
HOSTILITY TO BUSINESS
While union chiefs and Democrats assail Burger King, both should admit their party has created a climate that is hostile to businesses not willing to kowtow to collectivist politics. Toss in social divisiveness currently being sown by Washington, national security vulnerabilities because of our open border, and an education system that, despite hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, cannot overcome challenges at least partly caused by that open border, and you begin to see why the USA is no longer a beacon of light for investors.
The fact that the Obama administration has used IRS as a political weapon is just icing on a stale cake.
Burger King had its beginnings in Jacksonville, Florida. Tim Hortons was founded in Ontario, Canada. Besides the taxes and political issues, there’s an old-fashioned reason Canada looks so attractive to Burger King. As buy modafinil uk paypal (Toronto) noted, “The merger between the two fast-food chains isn’t being done solely to benefit from lower tax rates — buy modafinil nz has been ramping up its lunchtime menu and an acquisition like Burger King would presumably help on that front.”
As for social media angst, there’s another sizable slice of hypocrisy among those who call for boycotting Burger King. The Obama administration pushed solar above all other forms of energy, diverting billions to companies in the Left’s political sphere. Who was a major beneficiary of Obama’s policy? buy modafinil with bitcoin.
Featured Photo: The entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto is popularly called, ‘The Crystal.’ (Photo: CIA World Factbook)
(Analysis by Kay B. Day/Aug. 26, 2014)
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