Posted on 07/11/2009 10:28:34 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
McDonald's, the fast food giant, will join the ranks of companies quitting the UK when it moves its European headquarters to Geneva later this year.
Senior executives, including Denis Hennequin, president of McDonald's operations in Europe, will be based there.
The US company, which opened its first restaurant in London in 1974, joins other large US corporations that have based their European operations in Switzerland, including Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive and Yahoo. Google also chose Zurich for its European headquarters, despite having a large office in the UK capital.
McDonald's said the move "enables us to conduct the strategic management of key international intellectual property rights, including the licensing of those rights to our franchisees in Europe, from Switzerland".
The company stressed it expected its annual tax rate to remain between 29pc and 31pc.
Changes to the taxation of foreign profits linked to intellectual property rights such as patents and trademarks, announced in this year's Budget, led publishing company Informa to move its tax residency to Switzerland earlier this year.
The company has said it would end up paying twice, because of a UK tax on dividends from intellectual property rights abroad.
Home-grown UK companies have also upped sticks in recent years, in search of more favourable tax regimes. The list includes Regus, the temporary office supplier, which has moved to Luxembourg, advertising giant WPP and pharmaceuticals company Shire which are both relocating their headquarters to Ireland, and Brit Insurance, which plans to move to the Netherlands. Investment company Henderson set up a new parent company in Ireland to pay less tax.
McDonald's UK business will continue to be run from London, headed by Steve Easterbrook.
The company's European business has grown faster than the core US division in recent years and is now its
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
wow. I am sure the UK will respond with even higher taxes
This damn country owned the friggin planet a 100 years ago and now has all the productivity of Los Angeles County.
They have to raise taxes to make up for the losses. Government never declines, only grows.
Then they should tax all income at 90% and then have a 10% sales tax... oh... I think London already does
hypocrite companies esp google, who support socialism
They lost their best and brightest in two world wars.
They sent them over the top into machine guns.
“There’s one for you, 19 for me.”
Rumor has it though that Hamburglar will remain in London due to Swiss laws prohibiting the wearing of any mask “not of the ski variety” in public. Ronald is supposedly being transferred to Amsterdam at his request.
parsy, who is guessing Ronald is like a pot head, maybe? (You know the long hair, lack of a meaningful job, and slovenly appearance.)
The answer to it all is the Fair Tax.
Will McDonalds celebrate the move with a special Swiss cheeseburger?
I think you might want to reconsider your statement: youtube link
LOL Ms. Ronald McDonald looks a lot like Ann Coulter
RONALD HAD A SEX CHANGE OPERATION???? I’m not eating there again. What’s the Big Mac, now, The Big Megan, or something?
parsy, who has seen it all, now.
bookmark
No silly. That’s Ronald’s wife.
rahbert wrote:
They lost their best and brightest in two world wars.
They sent them over the top into machine guns.
I think I saw this on the military channel.
i couldn’t believe it.
rahbert wrote:
They lost their best and brightest in two world wars.
They sent them over the top into machine guns.
I think I saw this on the military channel.
i couldn’t believe it.
The miracle of socialism!
Watch the moving vans head north to Canada thanks to the change from Capitalism to Socialism south of the border.
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