In January 2021 Ethical Consumer viewed the Viessmann page on the hoovers.com website. The company had a holding company in the Netherlands with a subsidiary in Germany, and a holding company in Switzerland with subsidiaries in Italy.

Both of these jurisdictions were held to be tax havens by Ethical Consumer at the time of writing, and holding companies were held to be a company type at high risk of being used for tax avoidance purposes.

An internet search using the search terms “viessmann tax policy statement country” found no country-by-country financial information or reporting (CBCR), nor clear public tax statement confirming that it was this company’s policy not to engage in tax avoidance activity or to use tax havens for tax avoidance purposes, nor did the company provide a narrative explanation for what each group entity located in a tax haven is for, and how it is not being used for purposes of tax minimisation.

Given that Viessmann had two or more high risk subsidiaries in jurisdictions on Ethical Consumer's tax haven list and no country-by-country financial information, nor adequate policy statement and narrative explanation, the company received Ethical Consumer's worst rating for likely use of tax avoidance strategies and lost a full mark under Tax Conduct.