Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department has just issued a notice that it will apply temporary exit suspension measures to Mr. Vo Sy Nhan, legal representative of De Vuong City Joint Venture Co., Ltd. if this enterprise does not fulfill its tax obligations within 30 days from the date of issuance of the notice.
Based on the tax debt notice No. 5753/TB-HCM dated March 26, 2026, De Vuong City Joint Venture Co., Ltd., the investor of the Empire City project, still owes tax, fines, and late payment interest of about 6,979 billion VND, of which the debt over 90 days is more than 1,648 billion VND.
Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department said that after 30 days from the date of issuance of this notice, if De Vuong City Joint Venture Co., Ltd. has not fulfilled its tax payment obligation, the tax management agency will apply temporary exit suspension measures according to regulations for Mr. Vo Sy Nhan, who is currently holding the position of General Director as the legal representative of the Company.
De Vuong City Joint Venture Co., Ltd. is the investor of the 88-story observation tower complex (Empire City) in Thu Thiem New Urban Area. The project scale is more than 14.5 hectares with 11 towers, Gaw Capital Partners Investment Fund has invested capital in this project, with a total investment of about 1.2 billion USD.
Previously, in 2025, De Vuong City Joint Venture Co., Ltd. - the investor of the Empire City project - proposed to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to review the additional land use fee collection of up to 8.819 billion VND, 2.46 times the amount already paid. Functional agencies also requested businesses to continue to pay if there is another conclusion from competent authorities later.
De Vuong City Joint Venture Co., Ltd. said that on September 5, 2016, Ho Chi Minh City issued a decision to allocate more than 11 hectares of land with land use fees for a term of 50 years - calculated from June 23, 2015 to implement the project. By the beginning of 2017, the company had completed financial obligations for the above project of nearly 3,600 billion VND. The land allocation decision at that time clearly stated that the investor did not have to pay more when adjusting the form of land lease with one-time payment to land allocation with land use fees.
Therefore, this enterprise requests functional agencies to consider determining additional financial obligations in accordance with the spirit of the Government Inspectorate's conclusion, based on the land allocation milestone of 2015 and applying legal documents effective at that time, which is Circular 36/2014.
However, according to feedback from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, the land price of the Empire City project was determined to increase to 8,819 billion VND, which is in accordance with legal regulations and according to the Government Inspectorate's conclusion.
This is a project to re-determine land prices according to Conclusion 1037/KL-TTCP (2019) of the Government Inspectorate. In 2017, the investor of this project paid 3,581 billion VND of land use fees to the State.
However, according to the conclusion of the Government Inspectorate, the Empire City project was calculated and collected land use fees by the City People's Committee at a unit price of 26 million VND/m2 (equal to the average investment cost) which is not in accordance with regulations, it is necessary to re-determine the land price to recover, avoiding damage to the state budget.
Based on the re-determination of land prices, the total added value. This is a case of high land use fees and the investor has made many recommendations. However, the determination of land prices has been carried out by the Department of Agriculture and Environment and the specific Land Price Appraisal Council of the city in accordance with regulations. Therefore, there is no basis to resolve the investor's recommendations...", the Department of Finance affirmed.
Thus, according to the specific land price determination for the recent project, the land use fee increased by an additional 5.238 billion VND to 8.819 billion VND. This is the land use fee for the project that has been recalculated, and the additional financial obligation of late payment (5.4%) has not been applied.
