How can I present a file for download from an MVC controller?

You can do the same in Razor or in the Controller, like so..

@{
    //do this on the top most of your View, immediately after `using` statement
    Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
    Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=receipt.pdf");
}

Or in the Controller..

public ActionResult Receipt() {
    Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
    Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=receipt.pdf");

    return View();
}

I tried this in Chrome and IE9, both is downloading the pdf file.

I probably should add I am using RazorPDF to generate my PDFs. Here is a blog about it: http://nyveldt.com/blog/post/Introducing-RazorPDF

You should look at the File method of the Controller. This is exactly what it's for. It returns a FilePathResult instead of an ActionResult.

Return a FileResult or FileStreamResult from your action, depending on whether the file exists or you create it on the fly.

public ActionResult GetPdf(string filename)
{
    return File(filename, "application/pdf", Server.UrlEncode(filename));
}

To force the download of a PDF file, instead of being handled by the browser's PDF plugin:

public ActionResult DownloadPDF()
{
    return File("~/Content/MyFile.pdf", "application/pdf", "MyRenamedFile.pdf");
}

If you want to let the browser handle by its default behavior (plugin or download), just send two parameters.

public ActionResult DownloadPDF()
{
    return File("~/Content/MyFile.pdf", "application/pdf");
}

You'll need to use the third parameter to specify a name for the file on the browser dialog.

UPDATE: Charlino is right, when passing the third parameter (download filename) Content-Disposition: attachment; gets added to the Http Response Header. My solution was to send application\force-download as the mime-type, but this generates a problem with the filename of the download so the third parameter is required to send a good filename, therefore eliminating the need to force a download.