At a recent meeting between the Prime Minister and enterprises in Hanoi, representatives from the Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) suggested the Government consider reducing value-added tax and tax on real estate sales profits by at least 50 percent for the whole 2014.
Meanwhile, the Vietnam Tourism Association called for 30-percent reduction of land taxes for recreation areas and parks in hotels and resorts. They argued that construction in hotels and resorts occupied less space than real estate projects and if the Government imposed taxes on the whole land area, the rental price would be raised and customers would bear the brunt of that.
Nguyen Van Khoi from Saigon Construction Corporation said developers were facing difficulties in complying with Decree No. 69/2009/ND-CP, which stipulated that land use tax must be consistent with the market price. He suggested that instead of using this regulation, the Government should impose a land tax in line with the rental rate set by local authorities, and then multiply it by a K coefficient (which is between 10 and 15 percent of the price set by local authorities).
Many experts believed that Decree No. 69 has been outdated and should be replaced with a legal document having a more practical definition of market price.
