According to the 2017 annual report of the Aurelius Group, viewed by Ethical Consumer in August 2018, the company had multiple subsidiaries in jurisdictions considered by Ethicla Consumer to be tax havens at the time of writing. Of these, at least seven were holding companies or finance companies, which were high risk company types for likely use of tax avoidance strategies:
- Heteyo Holding BV (Netherlands)
- Office Depot Finance (UK) BV (Netherlands)
- Office Depot France Holding BV (Netherlands)
- Office Depot France Holding Two BV (Netherlands)
- Office Depot Growth Holding BV (Netherlands)
- Office Depot Holding GmbH (Switzerland)
- Office Depot Service Holding BV (Netherlands)
Aurelius Group provided subsidiary-based financial information, specifically equity and profit and loss figures. However, no details were given on the number of employees or staff costs, therefore the information did not qualify as country-by-country reporting.
Given that Aurelius Group had multiple high risk subsidiaries in jurisdictions considered by Ethical Consumer to be tax havens at the time of writing, and the company published insufficient country-by-country financial information, it received Ethical Consumer's worst rating for likely use of tax avoidance strategies.