Private Schools being able to hold charitable status

[IdiotCreatures]

I went and looked at a building associated with a local independent school yesterday, as it's always piqued my curiosity.
The school is run by the Woodard Corporation. I looked at their books on company house yesterday.
The amount of money moving through them is ridiculous. If people want to pay for a private education, then surely the institutions should be taxed.
Apart from a small number of scholarships, the average person is not benefiting from these institutions.
In the case of Eton, as pointed out on another thread, these schools are probably leading to damage to society and definitely do not promote the idea of equality.

I remember when the armed forces children were in private education that kept many a school going

Wait. The Chinese are buying schools that have charity tax arrangements so they can educate their children here to prepare them for British universities? Have I read that right? So families from China are benefitting from those tax breaks? My gast is flabbered and my case is rested!

YANBU it’s an absolute joke. I read today that Eton are building homes on a plot of land they own to make many millions in profit - none of which will be taxed. It’s outrageous

Children of all nations are pupils. Go to Dubai British schools and universities take part in exhibitions our there. Russian families have been wooed as well. It's big business

@Wouldloveanother Eton is absolutely atypical. Your post is the perfect example of what happens on these threads. The vast majority of indie schools are absolutely NOTHING like Eton and basing your view of all private schools on Eton is like basing your view of all mens' ability to run fast on Usain Bolt. HE can do 100m in 9 seconds or whatever it is, so all can. Eton and a few others are in a rarefied class of their own and COULD take the hit of VAT imposed but the vast majority would close which would not help the state sector in any way. As I have said upthread, it depends on your goal. If it is ideological, to close all private schools, then fine. If you think that by closing them it will somehow produce a net benefit for all students, you are mistaken. There will be selection by postcode, a massive rise in tutoring and the kids currently in private schools will simply swell the numbers and pressures on state schools.

I don’t believe private schools should be abolished per se but I think they should be taxed and the money put into state schools to compensate for the fact they’re buying their child an unfair advantage

@justasking111 quite
You say 'it's big business'. That's why private schools
Shouldn't have charitable status. You have just made my point more eloquently than I could!
This thread isn't about whether or not they should exist but whether they should have charitable status. I say no. And you've supplied the reason

But many would close, thus wiping out any financial gain that could be had. Its an own goal. It simply wouldn't achieve what you think it will.

What proof do you have that many would close? Do the virtually all well-off parents that send their children there really value the schools so little that a relatively modest rise will make them send their kids to state schools instead?

I don’t think they would. There will always be wealthy individuals who will pay through the nose for private school.

It is just that the claims of school closures do not chime with the facts of the income levels of parents whose children go to private school.
The average professional salary in the UK is £51,000. So if as the poster above says most children at her school have two professional parents working, then the average income for the household will be £102,000. The parents may have to cut their discretionary spend to afford a fairly modest increase in fees. But if they will not do this, then they do not really value the school much in the first place.

I don't know that foreign companies are eligible for charitable status in the UK

Universities have charitable status also academies and sixth form colleges.

'Schools will close' has been the argument forever. Yet the number of kids enrolled in private schools keeps increasing.

Less than I thought. There's 6million in the USA about 12% whereas it's about 7% in the UK

Some type of private health care insurance is used by 11% of us now. I wonder if there's been a recent spike

I really don't care whether schools have charitable status or not as I don't think it will make much difference to anyone financially (although I do think schools will stop offering bursaries etc). Charitable status removes the liability to Corporation Tax only.

The provision of education (teaching, books, etc) is exempt from VAT. Removing charitable status is irrelevant. However if we remove the exemption from VAT from education, then everyone will be taxed on their university fees, creating yet more student debt for our children. I guess the Government could single out private schools but where would the line be drawn - the laws around eligible educational bodies would need to re-written.

Most people just buy that basic private health insurance that pays towards dental and eye care costs and a set amount if you stay in hospital overnight. It is pretty cheap.

@justasking111 I don't think US state education is something we should look to learn from 😂

I wouldn't be surprised on private health cover. Tories tend to wreck public services so that those who can afford to, look elsewhere and then they have no skin in the game so don't care that state provision gets gradually worse. It's then easy for the rich and privileged to support a sell off as they're ok out of the system. We need them to stay with the state services so they can be appalled and campaign for improvement

Reference for anyone who wants more details on Eligible Educational Bodies:

www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-on-education-and-vocational-training-notice-70130#section-4

Just been reading the average cost of private health insurance per annum is 1400 pounds per year

@antelopevalley I work in the sector. I know about the margins they operate on and I know something about the finances of many parents who stretch to afford the fees, Yes there will always be some who can afford it and they will go to the schools that can afford to absorb this and the sector will get narrower and even more elitist and the state schools will not magically be endowed with millions more revenue to cope with the additional students they are now having to educate. I don't understand the point of arguing for something that will not achieve anything positive.

Private health insurance is just that insurance. It doesn’t pay for a service.

Would people feel the same about putting tax on private health care? What about vat? Surely a lot of the same arguments about schools can be used about private healthcare. More money for the nhs? Encourage people to use nhs more so drive up standards?

I don’t believe private schools should be abolished per se but I think they should be taxed and the money put into state schools to compensate for the fact they’re buying their child an unfair advantage

Would you also like to tax parents living in good catchment areas, as they have also bought an unfair advantage? We went private as we are in a poor catchment and couldn't afford a good catchment - private was cheaper than moving house...

Interesting point tax on health insurance. Successive governments always wait until enough folks are on board before taxing anything though. When they went after pensions there was uproar. Yet now with fuel and energy being so high they must be coining it. Tobacco isn't as lucrative so vaping may go on the hit list. Meat has been suggested