New points of Decree 291/2025 when paying land use fees to make red book

* Tighten regulations, reduce hassle when people pay land use fees

On November 6, 2025, the Government issued Decree No. 291/2025/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 103/2024/ND-CP on land use fees and land rent. This is an important document, directly related to the rights and financial obligations of people when carrying out procedures for granting Certificates of land use rights and ownership of assets attached to land (commonly known as "red books").

One of the notable new points is clearer regulations on how to calculate land use fees for cases where a Certificate is granted but there is no document proving that money has been paid to use the land.

According to Decree 291/2025, in case of being granted a Certificate according to the provisions of Point a, Point b, Clause 3, Article 140 of the 2024 Land Law without documents proving payment, the land use fee for the area granted a Certificate as residential land is determined according to the formula:

Land use fee = Land area granted Certificate of residential land x Residential land price specified in Land price list x 70%.

This calculation method helps the management agency to have a basis to determine financial obligations in a unified manner, at the same time, reducing delays or complaints in the process of reviewing applications for Certificate issuance. People can also easily know in advance the amount of money to pay, avoiding "stuck" situations due to lack of information or arbitrary application in each locality.

In case people have documents proving that they have paid enough money to use the land as prescribed in Clause 5 of this Article, they do not have to pay additional land use fees. If there are documents proving that they have paid but the amount paid is lower than the law at the time of payment, the amount paid will be converted into a percentage of the land area that has fulfilled financial obligations; the remaining area will be calculated according to the above formula, at the time people submit a complete and valid application for a Certificate.

This new regulation has clear practical significance: Ensuring the rights of people who have fulfilled their previous financial obligations, at the same time, creating a transparent mechanism to determine additional obligations, avoiding the situation of prolonged land use fee arrears or miscalculation of obligations.

In addition, the Decree also continues to specify the deadline and method of paying land use fees: People can pay a portion within 30 days after the notice, the remaining portion within a maximum of 90 days. This helps people have time to arrange their finances, reducing the pressure of paying at once, especially in rural areas or for middle-income earners.

Notably, the Decree requires the provincial People's Committee to publicize land price lists, land use fee determination procedures, and shorten the time for processing records, creating favorable conditions for people to carry out procedures for issuing red books. This is an important step forward in land administration reform, aiming at transparency, consistency and reducing hassle.

*Land development fund – a tool to support the creation of clean land and promote the issuance of certificates.

The Land Development Fund is defined as a non-budgetary State financial fund, under the Provincial People's Committee, operating independently from the State budget, not for profit, preserving and developing capital. The Fund is responsible for receiving and mobilizing capital according to regulations to advance capital for projects and tasks related to land such as compensation, support, resettlement, creating land funds for auctioning land use rights, etc.

For example, Decree 291 amends and supplements Article 9 of Decree No. 104/2024/ND-CP on Land Development Fund, specifically: Clause 1, Article 9 is amended as follows: Land Development Fund is a non-budgetary State financial fund established by the Provincial People's Committee to provide capital for the following tasks: Compensation, support, and resettlement when the State recovers land; Creation of land fund for auction of land use rights, bidding to select investors for projects using land; Investment in construction of technical infrastructure for resettlement areas, residential areas, industrial parks, and industrial clusters according to approved planning; Implementation of other tasks related to land management and use assigned by the Provincial People's Committee.

Decree 291/2025, effective from November 6, 2025, is amended to increase efficiency and specify some contents. For example, Point c, Clause 1, Article 9 of Decree 104/2024 is amended to clarify the capital provided to organizations to create resettlement land funds and auction land use rights to pay to the State budget.

The Fund's operating capital includes: Charter capital provided by the local budget; other legally mobilized capital (aid, sponsorship, other legal sources). Decree 291 supplements the requirement that the Fund must be public and transparent in its lending activities, be subject to annual audits and periodically report to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The new regulation aims to overcome the situation of slow capital recovery, lack of supervision and confusion between budget capital and Fund capital in some localities, at the same time, increase the ability to mobilize resources from socialization to develop land funds, serve urban planning and development, industry, and services.

Decree 291/2025 takes effect from November 6, 2025, therefore all activities of the Fund from this point must comply with the amended and supplemented contents.