After Unilever left the Netherlands and Shell is now also considering leaving for Great Britain, the Dutch Parliament is considering abolishing the dividend tax after all. With this abolition, the government hopes to convince Shell to stay in the Netherlands.
Peter Kavelaars, Professor of Economics of Taxation at Erasmus School of Economics, however, believes that Shell's relocation is a poor reason for abolishing the dividend tax. In an interview with BNR Nieuwsradio he explains why.
'The dividend tax is just a withholding tax,' Kavelaars explains. 'In the end, almost all shareholders owe income tax on that. And we also have to realize that Shell might relocate, which is certainly unfortunate, but that 99.9% of Shell's employment and operations will remain in the Netherlands. So, we should not worry too much about it.'
Will Shell be likely to reconsider if the dividend tax is going to be abolished? ‘I don't think they would be in favor of it right away,' says Kavelaars. 'What Shell also has to deal with, of course, is that they have a dual board structure just like Unilever. It is therefore not very convenient for these companies to be based in two countries.'
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The full item from BNR Nieuwsradio, 15 November 2021, can be found here (in Dutch).