The Ministry of Finance has just submitted an appraisal of the draft Resolution of the Government to remove obstacles related to calculating land use fees when households and individuals convert agricultural land to residential land.
According to the draft, in case people convert from garden land, ponds or agricultural land located in the same plot of land with residential land in residential areas (and some other cases) to residential land, the People's Committee at the provincial level will submit to the People's Council at the same level to regulate the land use fee collection level.
The principle of money calculation is specifically stated:
- For land areas with changed land use purposes within the residential land allocation limit: the land use fee collection rate is not lower than 30% of the land use fee when converting land use purposes to residential land, which is calculated according to the Decree on land use fees and land rents (currently Decree No. 103/2024/ND-CP and under consideration of amendment).
- For land areas exceeding the land allocation limit for residential land: the minimum collection rate is 50% of land use fees when converting land use purposes to residential land calculated according to the Decree on land use fees and land rents but not exceeding 500 m2; for land areas exceeding the land allocation limit for residential land of more than 500 m2, the collection rate is 100% of land use fees when converting land use purposes to residential land.
Notably, the above regulation only applies once to each household or individual when carrying out procedures for changing land use purposes.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Lawyer Nguyen Van Dinh - legal expert, who has worked for many years at the Ministry of Construction, who has been contributing to the development of laws: Land, Housing, Real Estate Business... shared his legal opinions on the above draft.
According to the lawyer, this is an urgent solution of the Government in the context of people having to pay land use fees when changing land use purposes too high (a solution permitted by the National Assembly in Resolution No. 206/2025/QH15). This solution is legal, within the authority of the Government and urgent.
However, Lawyer Dinh emphasized that the biggest problem will be the transitional provision of this Resolution. According to the draft, in case a household or individual has not paid the land use fee according to the notice of the tax authority, it will be recalculated according to the provisions of this Resolution and the Notice of land use fee payable will be adjusted. Households and individuals must pay the late payment of land use fees (if any).
On the contrary, in case a household or individual has paid land use fees according to the notice of the tax authority, the land use fees will not be recalculated according to the provisions of this Resolution.
Thus, people who are completing procedures to change land use purposes will have the mentality of waiting and stopping procedures; if the tax authority has issued a payment notice, stop paying, wait for the Government to issue a Resolution and the locality to issue regulations. At that time, people may only have to pay an amount equal to 30% of the amount payable immediately (adding an insignificant late payment fee).
"Invisibly, the new policy (and information about the process of building it) is very humane, but it will motivate people to... delay the performance of obligations to the state. And whoever complies with the notice to pay the money and pay the land use fee early will be the first person to... suffer losses. On the contrary, those who have the idea of 'let's pay' are the ones who benefit" - Mr. Dinh said.
According to him, this leads to unfair results for people and there is a potential risk of petitions and complaints from people who have paid land use fees early but have to pay a large sum of money, and are not entitled to preferential mechanisms from the new Resolution.
To avoid creating discrimination and injustice among land users, Lawyer Nguyen Van Dinh proposed to amend the transitional provisions of the Resolution in the direction of allowing the application of a summons for land users who have paid 100% of land use fees when converting land use purposes to residential land according to the policy of Decree No. 103/2024/ND-CP of the Government on land use fees and land rents (from August 1, 2024 to present).
Accordingly, people who have paid 100% of land use fees will be refunded by the state budget, or deducted from other financial obligations to the state. This regulation will ensure consensus from the people.
According to experts, looking further, this is also a valuable experience in policy making, especially policies that have a huge impact on livelihoods, people's lives... Policies and laws must be built with a long-term vision, a foundation for systematic thinking, and a real impact assessment. Stable, inherited laws... are also an important element of the attractiveness of the investment environment, especially for foreign investors.
