Kier starmer! He hates strivers!

[Bucketheadbucketbum]

He wants to introduce a policy to put up the cost of school fees 10 to 15%. This is a tax on hard-working parents! We slave away cutting cots everywhere living hand to mouth to try and improve our childrens future . Live in an average house average area 1 shit car no holidays work like a dog to get our kids through. We are easing the burden on the state system by choosing independent schools. We're not sending them to Eton paid by our trust fund! Why does he want to punish strivers! Tax the energy companies! So disappointed. We need a new political party. What's the point in trying to better your future.

'Oh, so all these rich people can only keep their kids in private schools due to the current state subsidy via the taxation system? Sounds like they should be striving a little harder.'

As always, those with money don't like to spend it if the can possibly avoid it.
It's why 'trickle down' economics doesn't work.

Bless. Private school fees rose by 23% above inflation in the decade leading up to 2020; did anyone spot a 'mass exodus' then? No?

'Just want to leave UK. No reward for saving or trying to better your families future. Just punishment.'
@Bucketheadbucketbum bye then. I'm not sure we'll miss one more Tory voter.
Where you off to, Europe? Oooh, might be tricky what with Brexit and all.
USA? You won't need to worry about school fees as you'll be spending all your hard earned money on health insurance.

I’m not sure where you like who were planning to just leave the UK are planning to go to the Visa requirements for Australia, New Zealand Canada most of you wouldn’t meet

Does anyone know if VAT is applied on university fees?

If not, do people also think it should be given that both private school and university could be seen as a "luxury" for similar reasons?

"Supplies of education provided by an eligible body, such as a university, are exempt from VAT."

Answered my own question via Google.

Is everyone on this thread happy for university feed to go up based on applying VAT, because if not, then this is just the politics of envy tbh.

Same with nurseries and pre-schools, do they apply VAT?

I get so so tired of this old shite about "striving" and "aspiring", like those of us whose children are state-educated don't also want the best for them. I went to a private school, a pretty expensive one. It was a waste of money. The whole operation was designed to extract as much money as possible from the parents over and above the fees. As for the quality of the education, my eldest's RC comp knocked it into a cocked hat.

@multivac absolutely - we are in the lower income bracket compare to most at my DD's school and we will pay the VAT no problem - it will come from cutting back on luxuries ( eating out , holidays , concerts and days out etc) There won't be a mass exodus. Most could just sell one of their weekend sports cars and cover the cost of the increase ( but will probably still moan at the injustice of it )

The government (whether Con or Lab) just needs to get rid of the charitable status of independent schools and stop messing around. The up to schools how much of this they pass on through fees and up to parents whether they wish to continue paying or not - it is a business.

Most sensible thing anyone's said.

Oh, my children don't go to private school. We are clearly just a family of passive layabouts.

A luxury good that's harmful to society. How much are cigs and booze taxed? All he's saying is they should pay some taxes. Just VAT. No income tax, no land tax/council tax. Just a little bit of the tax we all pay.

The UK is fixated on getting the comfortable and almost comfortable poorer. Not interested in the rich, the super rich or ultra rich and certainly not interested in getting the poor richer. Many people are beginning to think of how to leave.

Yep. When that happens we’ll feel it. Envy will only get you so far. The tax burden will be there to be paid.

Removing charitable status from independent schools would not automatically mean they were an "eligible body status" for VAT purposes.

If they lost their charitable status, then they may or may not qualify for VAT exemptions under another rule.
But if they could not qualify for VAT exemptions as a result, then so be it.

(And I would also not be in favour of a rewrite of the VAT rules just so that independent schools could receive a VAT exemption)

(Again, I'm excluding specialist SEN schools here)

Totally agree

Taxes shouldn't be going up at all without accountability and transparency on g ov spending first. The gov just want to divide people against each other. We're all arguing between the less well off'vs the slightly better off. We're paying European level of taxes and getting American level of services in return. Wouldn't argue with the idea of taxes if we actually got a decent service in return. Only need to look at the cases brought by The Good Law Project to see how corrupt gov spending is (e.g in relation to vip contracts given during the pandemic). It will be the same with school spending. In principle it is hard to argue against raising taxes to improve schools. But in reality, the money will prob be spent on giving out refurbishment contracts to gov contacts rather than anything that will improve education like paying for better experienced and more teachers. There are academies in my area which look fantastically resourced but are failing schools-which suggests amongst other things the money is prob not being spent on important things like staff. Not against the idea of VAT on private schools in principle but pretty sure the money wil just be used to line gov ministers' pockets (who otherwise have no real incentive to help the public when they get more money from lobbyists etc.)

All this talk of this policy being driven by the politics of envy is such nonsense. Private schools are not charities they are businesses and should be taxed as such. The focus should be improving state funded education as everyone will benefit.

People where I live buy a £2 million house to get into a catchment. When I was buying my first flat, the seller was someone who bought the flat as a second home (she owned a 4 bed house in a less desirable part of the borough) and this was for the sole purpose of getting the child into the school. How is spending £350k on an second home in the same borough better than paying for private school fees. At least private school fees are going towards giving some people jobs. If all these rich people buy homes in the catchment areas of the best state schools, they are potentially pricing some poor or young people out of a home. While they might not be able to afford the £2 million house, it still raises overall property prices and rental prices and most areas are mixed.

There would be so many unintended consequences to this and I am not at all sure Labour have worked them all out - it will all come out in the wash as a colossal waste of time and not raising nearly enough money for state schools.

If this is their only policy for improving the state system, it comes across as hollow and designed only to divide and score points - not truly change things for the better.

Universities are slightly different for two reasons.

1. In theory at least, admittance is on merit. Little Jimmy can attend private school as long as his parents pay the fees but he won't get into uni without the grades.

2. Most people who go to uni pay for their fees through a government loan. All adding vat would do is increase wealth inequality as students with parents who could afford uni fees outright will pay it for them, while those who can't will now be paying interest on the loan plus vat. There's also a limit on the loan term so the government might not actually recoup their outlay by adding vat anyway.

I don't think it is about hating strivers but it will not raise any money. If he is doing it for social reasons then okay you can justify it but if, as he says, he is doing it to raise tax then it is pointless. The cost to educate the children who leave the private sector and go to state schools will likely be more than what is raised by having VAT on fees.

Which is fine if you are bringing in the policy for social integration and improving the state sector but labour argue this is to raise money which it will not do!