The UK charity has sent a letter to HMRC stating that it should rescind the settlement agreement it had made with General Electric by Wednesday 8 December or Taxwatch will launch a judicial review of the settlement.

Taxwatch states that the out-of-court settlement deal, which was reported in September 2021, of the £1bn tax bill that General Electric owed the UK tax authority has left in place a precedent at the Court of Appeal which limits the ability of HMRC and indeed all victims of fraud to get out of contracts which had been secured by fraudulent means.

TaxWatch argues that given the allegations of fraud made by HMRC, the department should have initiated a criminal investigation under their criminal investigations policy. Instead, HMRC exonerated General Electric from any wrongdoing in its settlement without any investigation taking place under the criminal law.