Seeking advice on handling outstanding land lease payments by public non-profit organizations.

Specifically, the Government agrees to submit to the National Assembly for its opinion on the handling of land rent and late payment penalties for public non-business units that are subject to conversion to land lease, are exempt from land rent according to the provisions of the 2013 Land Law but have not yet converted to land lease as stipulated in Clause 3, Article 30, Clause 4, Article 118 of the 2024 Land Law and Clause 3, Article 51 of Government Decree No. 103/2024/ND-CP dated July 30, 2024 on land use fees and land rent, as presented by the Ministry of Finance in Submission No. 25/TTr-BTC dated February 4, 2025 and related documents.

The Government has authorized the Minister of Finance, acting on behalf of the Prime Minister, to sign the Government's submission to the National Assembly seeking opinions on the handling of land lease fees and late payment penalties for the aforementioned public service units.

The proposal suggests exempting land rent from payment for periods when procedures for land rent exemption were not completed or were delayed before the Land Law 2024 came into effect.

According to the draft Government submission, the financial mechanism regarding land (land lease fees) for public non-business units is specifically regulated by the 2024 Land Law. However, according to feedback from ministries, sectors, and localities, there are still difficulties in handling the transitional period regarding land lease fees for public non-business units that were leased land by the State before the 2024 Land Law came into effect.

The Government is seeking the National Assembly's opinion and proposing a method for handling land rent and late payment penalties for public non-business units that are subject to conversion to land lease, are exempt from land rent according to the provisions of the 2013 Land Law but have not yet converted to land lease as stipulated in Clause 3, Article 30, Clause 4, Article 118 of the 2024 Land Law and Clause 3, Article 51 of Government Decree No. 103/2024/ND-CP dated July 30, 2024, on land use fees and land rent, as follows:

For public service units that are subject to land lease and are exempt from land lease fees according to the provisions of the 2013 Land Law, but have not yet switched to land lease or have switched but have not yet completed or have been slow in completing the procedures to be exempted from land lease fees, and the tax authority has not yet issued a notice to pay land lease fees, according to Clause 3, Article 51 of Government Decree No. 103/2024/ND-CP dated July 30, 2024, they will not have to pay land lease fees for the period during which they have not yet completed or have been slow in completing the procedures to be exempted from land lease fees as prescribed before the effective date of the 2024 Land Law.

The government is submitting a request to the National Assembly for its opinion on handling the outstanding land lease payments of public non-profit organizations.

There are still many practical difficulties regarding the payment of land rent by public non-profit organizations.

Regarding cases where the tax authority has issued a notice for payment of land rent and late payment penalties, but the public service unit has not paid or has not paid in full as notified, the draft submission clarifies: According to the law on tax management and the National Assembly's Resolution on tax debt write-off, the land rent debt of public service units subject to chuyển to land lease under the 2013 land law, which are exempt from land rent but have not yet or have been slow to submit exemption documents, and the tax authority has issued a notice for payment of land rent, does not apply.

Furthermore, according to the 2013 Land Law, financially autonomous public service units using land to build public service facilities must switch to land lease from the effective date of the 2013 Land Law (July 1, 2014), and these units must complete the procedures to be exempted from land rent for the entire lease term for the land area used to build public service facilities.

However, based on reports from ministries, sectors, and localities, due to various subjective and objective reasons, some public service units have been slow in completing the procedures to switch from the form of state-allocated land without land use fees to land lease (some cases were granted autonomy after July 1, 2014, and had to reorganize their structure and stabilize operations when switching to a financially autonomous mechanism; land lease contracts were implemented slowly and for an extended period, leading to insufficient documentation as required, thus delaying the submission of applications for exemption or reduction of land lease fees); while some units proactively submitted applications for exemption or reduction of land lease fees as required immediately after the decision to switch to land lease, there are also units that have not yet completed the procedures for exemption or reduction of land lease fees.

Furthermore, according to Clause 6, Article 18 of Government Decree No. 46/2014/ND-CP dated May 15, 2014, land and water surface lessees are only entitled to exemption or reduction of land and water surface lease fees after completing the procedures for exemption or reduction as prescribed.

Therefore, these units are only exempt from land rent for the remaining period (from the date of issuance of the land lease decision to the end of the lease period or from the date of completing the procedures for exemption or reduction of land rent) and are not exempt from land rent for the period from the date of issuance of the decision granting autonomy to the date of issuance of the land lease decision or the date of completing the procedures for exemption of land rent. This results in the 발생 of retroactive collection or recalculation of land rent for the period before the land lease decision was issued because they were not exempted from land rent as stipulated due to the expiration of the deadline for submitting the application for exemption of land rent.

At the same time, legal guidelines on granting financial autonomy to public service units in various fields do not include provisions for land lease costs. Therefore, when developing and approving financial autonomy plans for public service units, land lease costs are not included in service prices. Public service units are established and operate primarily to provide essential public services directly related to the daily lives of citizens and the activities of organizations in society (such as hospitals, fishing ports, river tourism, etc.); some public service units mainly perform tasks related to surveying, monitoring, and sampling... serving basic research on resources and the environment, and promoting agricultural trade, thus lacking revenue to pay for land leases.

Based on the above, the delay in the procedures for converting from state-allocated land without land use fees to land lease has led to the collection of back land lease fees from financially autonomous public service units, affecting the implementation of the land lease fee exemption policy for these units. The amount of back fees collected has caused public service units to change their level of financial autonomy, making them unable to pay into the budget, resulting in outstanding land lease fees and late payment penalties. This also creates difficulties for tax authorities in debt recovery and reduction because this is an uncollectible debt; in cases where payment is mandatory, the state budget must balance and allocate funds in the budget estimates of subsequent years so that the units have the resources to pay the outstanding land lease fees as notified by the tax authorities, but this is also difficult to implement.

Therefore, some ministries, sectors, and localities have proposed considering the handling of outstanding land lease fees owed by public service units (including late payment penalties) to facilitate debt forgiveness and ensure the smooth operation of these units; at the same time, reducing the burden on tax authorities in monitoring and enforcing the collection of outstanding land lease fees in these cases.

The proposed handling of outstanding land lease payments by public non-business units is to be applied in the same way as the cancellation of land lease payments under tax management.

Based on the above, the Government submits to the National Assembly a proposal, based on the aforementioned legal provisions and the practical difficulties regarding land lease payments by public non-business units, to allow the National Assembly to handle the outstanding land lease debts of public non-business units (which are subject to conversion to land lease and are exempt from land lease fees according to the provisions of the 2013 Land Law, but have not yet or have been late in submitting the exemption application and the tax authority has issued a notice to pay land lease fees but have not paid or have not paid in full) in the same manner as the case of debt cancellation of land lease fees as stipulated in the law on tax management; the procedures and process for canceling land lease fees for public non-business units shall be carried out in the same way as tax debt cancellation as stipulated in the law on tax management (the tax authority will remove this revenue from the Tabmis tax collection monitoring system).

At the same time, the National Assembly will consider and address the outstanding land lease fees and late payment penalties owed by public service units (which are subject to chuyển to land lease and are exempt from land lease fees according to the provisions of the 2013 Land Law) and include this content in the general resolution of the National Assembly session; after the National Assembly agrees in principle, the Government will carry out the relevant procedures to report to the competent authority to include the above content in the general resolution of the National Assembly session.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/xin-y-kien-ve-xu-ly-so-no-tien-thue-dat-cua-don-vi-su-nghiep-cong-lap-d373872.html