APPENDIX A Home Depot $2021$ Financial Statements Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors The Home Depot, Incorporated: Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of The Home Depot, Incorporated and subsidiaries $($the Company$)$ as of January $30,2022$ and January $31,2021,$ the related consolidated statements of earnings, comprehensive income, stockholders$$ equity, and cash flows for each of the fiscal years in the three$-$year period ended January $30,2022,$ and the related notes $($collectively$,$ the consolidated financial statements$).$ In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of January $30,2022$ and January $31,2021,$ and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the fiscal years in the three$-$year period ended January $30,2022,$ in conformity with U$.$S$.$ generally accepted accounting principles. We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board $($United States$)($PCAOB$),$ the Company$$s internal control over financial reporting as of January $30,2022,$ based on criteria established in Internal Control $$ Integrated Framework $(2013)$ issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission, and our report dated March $23,2022$ expressed an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of the Company$$s internal control over financial reporting. Basis for Opinion These Consolidated Financial Statements are the responsibility of the Company$$s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these Consolidated Financial Statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U$.$S$.$ federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB. We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the Consolidated Financial Statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the Consolidated Financial Statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the Consolidated Financial Statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the Consolidated Financial Statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. Critical Audit Matter The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the consolidated financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: $(1)$ relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the consolidated financial statements and $(2)$ involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of a critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates. Estimation of store shrink As discussed in Note $1$ to the consolidated financial statements, the m