Barclays Bank told by Treasury to pay £500m avoided tax

Barclays Bank has been ordered by the Treasury to pay half-a-billion pounds in tax which it had tried to avoid.

Barclays was accused by HM Revenue and Customs of designing and using two schemes that were intended to avoid substantial amounts of tax.

The government has taken the unusual step of introducing retrospective legislation to end such "aggressive tax avoidance" by financial institutions.

Tax rules forced the bank to tell the authorities about its plans.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17181213

Government willing to shut more bank tax loopholes.

(Reuters) - The government is willing to shut down further bank tax loopholes schemes in future, Treasury official David Gauke said on Tuesday, after it ended a tax avoidance scheme that had been used by Barclays.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/02/28/uk-britain-banks-tax-idUKTRE81Q1PQ20120228