Surprisingly, Canada is the BEST major country when it comes to total corporate tax burden — by a LOT. Hence Burger King’s decision to relocate to the Frozen North. See the short article and tax table below. And keep in mind that total CALIFORNIA tax costs increase this tax differential substantially for our Golden State businesses.
Obama’s response to Burger King’s move (a move because of our punitively high U.S. tax structure) was predictable — further restrictions on American companies leaving. It’s the usual thuggish response of a Chicago community organizer against those who do not bend to his will.
Well, I have a wry suggestion: Obama’s plan to keep companies from moving to low-tax Canada should include installing along our Canadian border a 3,000 miles long string of machine gun towers and mine fields (a la East Germany) to keep Ahmericans in AMERICA (well, wherever) — Land of the Free!
Think about it –it would be the first effective Obama jobs stimulus program!
NOTE TO OBAMA — I’m KIDDING, you BLOCKHEAD!
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Who-d a-thunk it? Total tax costs in Canada are 46.4% lower than in the U.S., and Burger King wants to move there?
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In a post titled at Business Insider (“Canada Has The Most Business-Friendly Tax Policy In The World“) Myles Udland points to a recent KMPG special tax report “Competitive Alternatives” that measures the Total Tax Index for the ten countries in the table above. KMPG’s Total Tax Index measures all taxes levied on corporations including income taxes, property taxes, capital taxes, sales taxes, miscellaneous local business taxes, and statutory labor costs (statutory plan costs and other payroll-based taxes). According to KMPG:
Among the countries studied, Canada has the lowest Total Tax Index (TTI) at 53.6. In other words, total tax costs in Canada are 46.4 percent lower than in the United States, which has a TTI of 100.0 and represents the benchmark against which all locations are scored.
Should it be any surprise then that Canada may be the new home of Burger King? From the New York Times:
The restaurant operator said on Sunday that it was in talks to buy Tim Hortons, the Canadian doughnut-and-coffee chain, in a potential deal that would create one of the world’s biggest fast-food businesses.
If completed, the deal would mean Burger King’s corporate headquarters would move to Canada, raising the specter of yet another American company switching its national citizenship to lower its tax bill.