Dossier, order and procedures for reducing land rent for those affected by Covid-19

Reducing land rent is one of solutions to remove difficulties for enterprises, people affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Photo: Thùy Linh

Reducing 15% of the payable amount of land rent in 2020 for enterprises, organisations, households and individuals (referred as leaseholders) who are directly leased land by the State in the form of payment for land rents but stopping production and business for 15 days or more due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was one of the solutions to continue solving difficulties for production and business, supporting those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic which has issued under Decision 22/2020/QD-TTg dated August 10, 2020.

To help taxpayers access this policy, the Hanoi Tax Department has issued notices on dossiers, order and procedures for land rent reduction.

Regarding leaseholders, to apply the land rent reduction as mentioned above, the leaseholder submits one set of application for land rent reduction (Application form, Land lease decision or land lease contract) to the tax authority, the Economic Zone Authority, the High-Tech Park Management Board and other agencies as prescribed by law from August 10, 2020 to December 31, 2020.

Regarding the competent authority, based on the dossier submitted by the leaseholder, within 20 days of receipt of a complete and valid dossier, the competent authority will determine the amount of land rent reduction and issue a decision on land rent reduction.

Besides that, the Hanoi Tax Department also noted this provision applies to leaseholders with many different production and business activities but only suspends one production and business activity on the land or parcel of land leased directly from the State.

If the leaseholder submits dossiers after December 31, 2020, they would not be subject to the land rent reduction in accordance with this decision.

In the cases when the leaseholder has been decided by a competent authority to reduce land rent in accordance with this decision but later discovered through inspection and examination that the leaseholder is not eligible for a reduction, the leaseholder must return to the State budget the amount of reduction and the late payment interest calculated on the reduced amount.

In addition, if that the leaseholder has paid land rent in the 2020 but after the competent authority decided to reduce the land rent arising exceeded amount of land rent, the overpaid amount might be deducted from land rental for the following period or the following year in accordance with the law on tax management and other relevant laws; if there was no period for the next land rental payment, the overpaid amount would be cleared or refunded in accordance with the law on tax management and other relevant laws.