Durbin boycotts Burger King

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he has decided to stop eating at Burger King because they plan to move their headquarters to Canada in order to avoid U.S. taxes.

Durbin said that while he was back in this home state during the August recess he purposely avoided eating lunch at Burger King and instead ate at Steak ‘n Shake.

{mosads}“I consciously decided not to stop at Burger King,” Durbin said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “I don’t care to do business with a company that doesn’t think it owes its fair share of taxes.”

Burger King has announced that it will move its headquarters from the United States to Canada after buying a doughnut chain there. Durbin has been critical of all companies that move from the United States to avoid higher corporate tax rates — a practice called corporate inversion.

Durbin said he and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) would introduce legislation later this week to amend the tax code that would ensure U.S. companies cannot get out of paying taxes by moving overseas. 

Currently under inversion practices, a company is able to write off interests on debts. Durbin and Schumer’s bill would prevent those moving overseas from taking excessive interest deductions. It would reduce the cap on interest deductions from 50 percent of adjusted taxable income to 25 percent.