“You always have to think. Nothing is permanent and of course we look at the business climate,” he said in an extensive interview with Het Financieele Dagblad. The company has no concrete plans to take action, but remains concerned about Dutch dividend tax.

‘Limiting factors’

“At the moment, this is not an acute problem, but it is a limiting factor for us,” Van Beurden said. Because of the dividend tax, Shell, like Unilever, has a dual corporate structure, with two head offices and two categories of shares. This is because the British tax authorities do not collect dividend tax, while the Dutch tax authorities do. This tax generates around two billion euros annually.

Two different shares make it difficult for a company to make an acquisition, if it wants to pay for the deal with its own shares. The two companies have been lobbying for the elimination of the dividend tax for fifteen years, and in 2018 the lobbying appeared to be successful. But the proposal was still scrapped after harsh social criticism, which was one of the biggest political defeats for Prime Minister Rutte.

“The government always says that the dividend tax is temporary and will be abolished. That never happened, but we still support it,” said Tim Kezer, a Shell spokesman. Ultimately, Shell wants a solution to this problem, and the company continues to lobby to achieve it.

Unilever is gone

Unilever recently chose the UK, meaning the end of its Rotterdam headquarters. Company actually came to Rotterdambut voted under pressure from shareholders finally to London.

Therefore, there is still a possibility that other large Dutch companies will also leave. Shell employs around 86,000 people worldwide, around 10,000 of whom are in the Netherlands.

Prime Minister Rutte has always used job losses as an argument for abolishing the dividend tax. Unilever’s decision to become British has no consequences for its 2,500 employees in the Netherlands.