The Tax Department has just issued Official Dispatch 6085/CT-PC on responding to feedback and recommendations from readers.
Accordingly, the Tax Department said that it has received feedback and recommendations from reader N.T. N. T regarding the determination of financial obligations when carrying out administrative procedures to request land registration and first-time certificate issuance.
Regarding this issue, the Tax Department responded as follows:
- When carrying out procedures for issuing Certificates of land use rights (red books), ownership of assets attached to land such as: Transfer, donation, giving, mortgage..., land users must fulfill financial obligations related to land according to the provisions of law (except for cases where competent authorities determine that they do not have to fulfill financial obligations or are exempted, or are entitled to write off financial obligations).
- For the performance of financial obligations related to land (revenues assigned to tax authorities to organize collection), the land management agency (Land Registration Office) is responsible for transferring information on the determination of financial obligations and obligations to pay to the state budget to the tax management agency for the tax authority to organize collection, and the calculation of late payment interest for taxes and other revenues... is carried out in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Tax Administration and guiding documents for implementation. In case of late payment of financial obligations when carrying out the above procedures, land users will be charged late payment interest according to the provisions of point a, clause 2, Article 16 of the 2025 Law on Tax Administration.
Thus, requiring land users to have the obligation to pay late payment penalties according to the provisions of the Law on Tax Administration is not a legal contradiction between the regulations on the deadline for payment of financial obligations in the Law on Tax Administration and the regulations on issuance of Certificates of Land Use Rights in the 2024 Land Law because:
- The 2024 Land Law does not stipulate "not having to perform immediately" financial obligations: The Law only stipulates that land users are granted Certificates, but must perform financial obligations according to the provisions of law. This means that financial obligations must still be performed, only that the time of implementation is determined according to the provisions of the Law on Tax Administration.
- The deadline for fulfilling financial obligations is specifically determined according to the provisions of the Law on Tax Administration and guiding documents for implementation (the deadline for submitting tax declaration dossiers for land use fees is no later than 30 days from the date of incurring obligations to the state budget/time when the land registration office sends information to the tax authority).
- The issuance of Certificates is conditional: The law stipulates that land users must fulfill financial obligations before being granted a Certificate, this is a mandatory condition, not a contradiction.
- Handling late payment penalties is legal: If land users do not fulfill their financial obligations within the prescribed time limit, applying late payment penalties according to the Law on Tax Administration is completely appropriate.
When the tax authority issues a notice to pay land use fees, registration fees, and financial obligations of people have been officially determined. If the deadline stated in the notice is exceeded but not paid, the act of late payment has violated the provisions of the Law on Tax Administration. At the same time, the 2024 Land Law stipulates the administrative procedures related to land (such as confirming whether conditions are met or not, the time of issuance of certificates), while the Law on Tax Administration regulates the collection and payment to the state budget.
These two laws regulate two different aspects of state management relations and complement each other, not eliminate the effectiveness of each other. In addition, the fact that the State has not signed and issued Certificates or has not allowed the exercise of rights (transfer, mortgage...) for people who have not fulfilled financial obligations is a measure of land management and the application of late payment fees is a mandatory financial sanction according to the Law on Taxes for late payment fees to the state budget.
