Activist Group Wants Burger King To Keep Corporate HQ In South Florida

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - An activist group has made a whopper of a demand of Miami-based Burger King.

Thursday afternoon they delivered more than 70,000 signatures to the burger giant from people who want them to abandon their plans to move their corporate headquarters to Canada.

In August, Burger King announced that it would attempt to use a so-called "tax inversion" to lower its tax bill in the U.S. by claiming it's a Canadian company following its planned merger with Tim Hortons. Such tax inversions have been criticized by President Barack Obama and Congress because they mean a loss of tax revenue for the U.S. government.

The corporate headquarters of the new company would be in Canada.

However, Burger King and Tim Hortons said the chains will continue to be run independently and that Burger King will still operate out of Miami.

"Both Burger King Corp. and Tim Hortons will continue to operate as independent brands.  We'll just be under common ownership. Our headquarters will remain in Miami where we were founded more than 60 years ago and business will continue as usual at our restaurants around the world," said Burger King in a statement.

The statement went on to say that the acquisition of Tim Hortons and creating a new corporate HQ in Canada had nothing to do with taxes.

"The decision to create a new global QSR leader with Tim Hortons is not tax-driven – it's about global growth for both brands, including growth for the Tim Hortons brand in the U.S. BKC will continue to pay all of our federal, state and local U.S. taxes."

Since that announcement more than 72,000 individuals have signed a Democracy for America petition calling on Burger King to reverse its plans.

Burger King, which has about 14,000 locations, is working to open more locations in developing markets including international markets.  Tim Hortons has more than 4,500 locations, mostly in Canada.

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