Companies that leave the Netherlands or close down some of their activities do so because of the shortage of staff and decisions by their parent company, not the tax regime, according to research on behalf of the economic affairs ministry.

In total, officials from 17 companies were interviewed for the report. All had either moved some or all of their activities abroad in the past three years or were planning to do so in the coming year.

The interviews indicated that the tax regime in the Netherlands had barely any influence on their decisions, economic affairs minister Micky Adriaansens told MPs on Wednesday.

Most of the firms in the survey had moved production or logistics departments abroad because of the shortage of staff. One high-tech company quoted in the survey moved some of its production capacity to India because of the shortage of skilled IT workers.

Decisions made by the parent company and long-term prospects were also a reason to actually move.

Plans to reduce the 30% ruling, a tax break that a small proportion of international workers can claim for five years, were also cited by employers as worrying, as was the shortage of housing and electricity grid capacity.

Companies such as Shell, Unilever and DSM which have moved their headquarters in recent years have blamed the tax climate in the Netherlands, in particular the tax on dividends.