Real Estate

Who is Eligible for the 50% Land Use Fee Reduction?

After a decade, a surprising land-use debt surge of nearly VND 4 billion has prompted the taxpayer, a member of the police force, to seek clarification from the tax authorities about the 50% reduction in land-use fees.

Administrator

7 August, 2025

A taxpayer shared that in 2015, his family was allowed to convert land use purposes in Thu Duc City, with a land use fee of VND 2.8 billion to be paid later.

Recently, when the taxpayer proceeded to pay the deferred amount, he received a new tax notification with an amount of nearly VND 6.8 billion.

Being a member of the armed forces, the taxpayer consulted the Land Law 2024 and Decree No. 103/2024 of the Government, which stipulates a 50% reduction in land use fees for this group.

Therefore, the taxpayer questioned whether the tax authority’s notification to pay the full amount without applying the exemption and reduction policies is in accordance with the law.

Land use tax is a tax of great interest to many people. Illustration. Photo: Thach Thao

In response to this case, Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department stated that according to Points a and b, Clause 3, Article 124 of the 2024 Land Law, there are cases of land allocation and land lease without auctioning the land use rights or bidding to select investors for projects involving land use.

Accordingly, land allocation with collection of land use fees and land lease shall be applied in the following cases:

– Allocation of residential land to officers, civil servants, public employees, officers in the military, professional soldiers, defense civil servants, defense employees, officers, non-commissioned officers, public security employees, those working in cryptography, and other employees in cryptography organizations who are paid from the state budget but have not been allocated residential land or houses.

– Allocation of residential land to teachers and medical staff working in border and island communes belonging to regions with difficult socio-economic conditions or extremely difficult socio-economic conditions, who do not own residential land or houses at their place of work or have not benefited from housing support policies in accordance with the law on housing.

Clause 2, Article 19 of Decree No. 103/2024 of the Government stipulates a 50% reduction in land use fees for residential land for the subjects specified in Points a and b, Clause 3, Article 124 of the Land Law, who are working in border and island communes or district-level islands without commune-level administrative units in regions with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions.

Additionally, Clause 1, Article 60 of Circular No. 80/2021 of the Ministry of Finance, guiding the implementation of several articles of the Law on Tax Administration and Decree No. 126/2020 of the Government, stipulates that the dossier for exemption and reduction of land use fees must include a decision or document in accordance with the law on exemption and reduction of land use fees issued by the People’s Committee of the provincial level or an authorized agency, or a delegated and assigned unit.

The tax authority stated that to be considered for a reduction in land use fees, taxpayers should contact the provincial People’s Committee (or authorized unit) to determine their eligibility for the policy. Subsequently, they should forward the confirmation to the tax authority for recalculation of financial obligations and issuance of a decision on exemption and reduction in accordance with regulations.

Nguyen Le

– 15:30 08/06/2025