Bank of Ireland subsidiary guilty of €35m tax offence

One of Bank of Ireland’s UK subsidiaries, Bristol and West, has been found by a British tax tribunal to be guilty of trying to avoid £30m (€35m) in tax.

Bank of Ireland is now liable for the disputed £30m and may have to pay interest on the amount owing from the date when the offence occurred, in 2003.

Bristol and West had created a dummy transaction in an attempt to exploit a weakness in tax law governing financial swaps that the bank hoped to use to lessen its corporate tax bill.