The announcement of Burger King's Canada move a few months ago caused many eyebrows to be raised, but that was before the company made public just how much they'd be saving up by moving to the friendly North American country: 1.2 billion dollars.
In the last days of the summer, Burger King's Canada action was first announce; ever since then, it was obvious that the move was due to the fact that they'd be paying less taxes in the country famous for its donuts - however, it wasn't until now that the full scale of the saving was revealed.
As The Washington Post reported back in the summer, Burger King's Canada move happened in the last days of August, as the company announced it'd be taking its headquarters outside the United States due to heavy taxing fees.
As corporate taxes in Canada are much lower than in the United States, the Burger King Canada move wasn't a surprise - however, the fact that the fast food chain also purchased iconic brand Tim Hortons (the country's equivalent to Dunkin' Donuts, valued at roughly $8 billion) did make people curious as to what would be happening with the number two fast food chain in the world.
Second only to McDonald's, Burger King has turned over the years in one of the biggest power houses of the fast food industry - an industry that has, however, seen a decrease in numbers over the last few years, as patrons all over the world (and particularly in the United States) have been turning more and more towards casual dining venues such as Olive Garden or Chili's.
The move to translate Burger King to Canada and merge it with Tim Hortons meant that the new conglomerate became the third-biggest "quick service restaurant company" in the world altogether, featuring around 18,000 restaurants in 100 different countries, reported Canadian outlet Newswire, following a statement made by the two companies at the time.
While the company officially denied it, it was perfectly clear that the Burger King Canada move had been made to find a friendlier corporate tax system for the fast food giant that created the Whopper. However, it wasn't until this week that the company released the official numbers of their projected earnings and savings.
Earlier this week, Americans for Tax Fairness released a report entitled "Whopper of a Tax Dodge: How Burger King's Inversion Could Shortchange America," studying the case of the recent merger between Burger King and Tim Hortons and the company's ultimate move to Canada. By the report's estimates, the Burger King Canada move would be saving the Whopper creators somewhere between from $400 million to $1.2 billion in taxes in the period between 2015 and 2018 alone.
As the deal with Tim Hortons proceeds along with the logistics of moving such a big company to a new country, currently the Burger King's headquarters are located in Miami, Florida.
Under the deal that will lead the move of Burger King to Canada, the company will maintain its operations in the United States and create new HQ in the northern country, as the merger becomes a new entity by the name of New Red Canada Partnership.
According to IB Times, this deal is similar to others that different companies have made in the past, as many US companies have moved abroad due to the high taxes in the country: corporate tax rates in the US mean that companies based there have to leave 40 percent of their intake, making it the developed country with the highest rate in the world.
In other cases, the move towards other economies won't change the way things are currently done in the company a great deal, or at least not in an everyday basis: usually, the U.S. executives continue to have control in the company even after the move, and the advertising campaigns are still based on the States.
