NEW YORK (AP) — Some Burger King customers don’t want to see the company move its corporate headquarters from Miami to Canada, in a deal that could lower its taxes.
Burger King announced yesterday that it is trying to buy Canadian doughnut chain Tim Hortons. And investors welcomed the news, with shares of both companies rising more than 20 percent.
But Burger King’s Facebook page already has more than 1,000 mostly negative comments about the possible move of the company’s headquarters. Burger King says it represents just a small fraction of the more than 7 million followers it has on Facebook.
One man buying a Double Whopper and onion rings in New York today said Burger King shouldn’t be paying taxes to another country. Shawn Simpson said it’s “an American brand.”
Burger King is the latest company to face fallout over a tax inversion — which is when a company acquires a business in another country, and then relocates its headquarters there. Earlier this month, Walgreen abandoned plans to pursue a tax inversion after negative publicity about the planned move.
President Barack Obama and Congress have criticized inversions because they mean a loss of tax revenue for the U.S. government.
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