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Tax news in brief

Author: ICAEW Insights

Published: 02 Dec 2025

Highlights from the broader tax news for the week ending 2 December 2025, including: new guidelines from HMRC on investment zone tax reliefs; and a HMRC one-to-many campaign focused on hauliers.

Tax relief and investment zones

The government has published guidelines for compliance (GfC) 15: help with investment zones. HMRC says that GfC15 will help businesses operating, or intending to operate, within an investment zone to understand the tax reliefs available to them.

GfC set out HMRC’s view of “complex, widely misunderstood, or novel areas of the tax rules”. There is no requirement to follow the guidelines. However, HMRC says that doing so will help taxpayers get their “taxes right first time”, reducing the risk of a compliance check and the taxpayer having to pay additional tax, interest and penalties where an error has been made.

Using the goods vehicle movement service

HMRC has sent an email to hauliers who use the goods vehicle movement service (GVMS) to remind them of the correct way in which to declare a container or vehicle as empty. The email sets out common mistakes to avoid and explains the consequences of making an error.

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