The scrapping of a Dutch tax on dividends was "decisive" for Unilever in deciding whether it would choose the Netherlands or Britain as its base, according to memos released by the Dutch government as part of a domestic political row on Tuesday.
The memos compiled in the summer of 2017 as Prime Minister Mark Rutte was engaged in negotiations to form a government recorded lobbying by both Shell and Unilever against the tax.
This forced them to maintain awkward dual share structures in order to ensure British investors were not disadvantaged.
