Burger King has become the latest company to lower its taxes by moving to a foreign country even though some in the US think Canada is part of the US. Whether they can get the deal done before the US Congress enacts new laws to prevent corporations fleeing to friendlier tax climates remains to be seen.

This is part of a flight to cheapness by Big Pharma, Walgreens, and others to escape our high taxes. Instead of keeping earnings abroad, they can cash in at a lower tax rate and screw the US out of their taxes.

So will the US change the tax laws to make our rates lower or do what they did to individuals fleeing our taxes and charge them a higher tax rate on the money they have that they our trying to transfer abroad?

FLAT TAX

And I'm sure that means they'll be paying their US workers healthcare like they have in Canada.

Lawl no. ^

If Canada wants our corporate crooks and tax cheats, let them have them. The fewer Satanic Mills we have in the US, the better.

You're a parody of yourself, Putin33.

The easiest thing the government could do to encourage economic growth is slash the corporate tax rate. The high corporate tax we have now is ludicrous because it discourages investment, which creates jobs, and means higher prices for consumers, since corporations will raise their prices in order to offset the money lost to taxes and maintain their profit margin.

Of course, people who want high corporate taxes don't want them because they think it's good for the economy somehow. No, they want them high because CORPORATIONS ARE BAD, MAN!

Funny because that was to ssorenn, not you...

Legions of companies pay no taxes at all. The notion that corporations are overtaxed is a giant fraud perpetuated by the defenders of corporate greed like Invictus, who never met a corporate crook he didn't like.

Oh noes, Burger King's inedible microwaved garbage food's prices will be increased under the dubious pretense of taxes while the corporate fat cats give themselves bonuses. Whatever will we do?

That's FLAME BROILED microwaved garbage, thank you very much...

funny, when the government wants less smoking, they raise the taxes on it, recognizing that more cost = less use.

And yet they can't figure out how to apply the same truth to corporate tax structure. Want fewer American companies --> make it more expensive to be an american company. The outcome is predictable, and all those "burn the 1%'ers" / "Kill the evil prodfit-making corporations!" liberals are now reaping what they sewed.

i.e. Quit your bitching.

uh, Bo what does that mean?

i like the 1%ers, makes you believe the american dream is still alive

what is really interseting is that if you look at who *IS* the 1% or 2%, other than a few people it changes very much over time -- i.e. the notion that there is a small, tight group of super-wealthy / super-earners who run the show year after year is simply false.

But yes - I like having people wealthier than I so I have something to shoot for. Damn straight!

+1 Big K

I mean a flat tax is an *awful* idea.

you be a fool

but then again you have never payed taxes ,so there you have it

The undereducated have this uninformed philosophy that taxes are magic money that coroproations produce from thin air, instead of recognizing that coroporations NEVER pay taxes....taxes are built into the PRICE of every product CONSUMER'S PURCHASE.

Thus, the argument can be made that excessive corporate taxes are actually more harmful to the poor of the country who - under our current system of tax law, are supposd to pay a lower % tax burden (income) - and yet get stuck with equally high tax burden on purchased product which contains the cost of taxes to the corporation.

Thus - in affect - corproate taxes ARE a "flat tax" on the consumer level.

Yeah, that must be it.

Agree @ krellin

Employees medical costs go up due to Obama care and the company reduces their cost, increases cost to employee. Raises prices to customer to absorb the difference. Same thing with taxes. It is all pass through.

But the biggest joke is the NFL never had paid tax. Somehow is set up as a non profit corporation.

I'm so happy krellin is back.

ssorenn, how come you want a flat tax? doesn't america have kind of a reverse progressive tax where the very rich pay even less taxes than the usual american?

if every one pays with a flat tax, and you take the loophole tax deductions away, this country will run a surplus in less than 10 years....EVERYONE pays...steve forbes says that rate should be between 17-20% of income...the only thing you need to work out, is charitable contrabutions....without finding a way to alloow for some sort of deduction for these, charities will suffer

"skin in the game"....Obama's words. A Flat Tax means that *all* Americans have equal skin in the game. It minimizes the the "importance" of the large tax payers. It gives every voting citizen in the country an equal reason to be concerned about where and why and how our Government is spending our tax dollars. It is an equalizer.

Under the current system of unequal taxation, the "lower tier" tax "payers" (many of whom don't even pay, but receive "taxes" they never paid in!) their motivations for success, growth, county, etc are perverted by the desire to receive what was never earned.

There are some issues with this article. I don't typically deal much with public companies, but I do know some things about tax in Canada.

The article does not mention that Quebec has the highest tax rates of any Canadian province - they are at 11.9% flat in addition the the federal tax.

The article ignores the idea of permanent establishment. If you have a permanent establishment in any place other than your "place of residence" then you still pay your tax in that jurisdiction. They would still be required to file US tax returns on their US activities, on the basis that they still have US based offices serving their franchises there.

Of course, if they move all of their operations to Canada and are able to earn the same level of franchise fee income, then this could benefit them - but I don't see that as being likely.

This is why the corporate tax rate is lower in Canada - there is a tax abatement of 10% that is designed to leave room for the other jurisdictions (provinces and other countries) the opportunity to tax.

So, the article is kind of misleading.

Flat tax is bullshit, for painfully obvious reasons. Perfectly, taxes would be levied from amounts over cost of living and stuff. Otherwise, you'd have people below the poverty line paying tax.

Corporations should pay taxes legally, but they often don't. I agree that corporations raise prices to comply with tax requirements (even though a lot don't pay taxes), and that the poor are unfairly targeted by high prices on stuff.

That doesn't mean the only solution is to reduce corporate taxes, or to remove them. It may well be the best solution, though. Curiously, I can find no obvious flaw in krellin's reasoning. A no-loophole scaling income tax, with a tax on investments could lead to an interesting situation.

My perfect tax is indeed flat, but with a flat numeric tax reduction for everyone. This means you can have a reasonably high tax, while poor people don't lose most of their money, and the horribly rich pay reasonable rates, but that's never gonna happen.

"Corporations should pay taxes legally, but they often don't."

Do you have some evidence of this? I would argue it is simply not true.