VAT on private school fees - will it change how you vote?

[Iwishicouldflyhigh]

Following on from the other interesting thread about whether it will be implemented, will this policy change how you vote either way?
For me - i've voted Labour and Tory over the years, but Tory for the most recent GE's. This year, i've been thinking seriously about how i'd vote at the next GE and it wasn't definitely a Tory vote - i was definitely a floating voter.
However, my children are at PS and so i will now most definitely be voting Tory (not just because how the VAT will seriously impact us - child number 3 will now not be going to the prep that we had lined up for her, she'll enter the local primary until secondary school - but how i think that it will affect schools negatively and children negatively).
I have a lot of left leaning friends who educate privately and whilst they cannot bring themselves to vote Tory, they won't vote Labour either at the next GE because of this policy.

It seems to me that this policy is only a vote loser (ie many Labour voters and 'floaters' who school privately won't vote for them at the next GE) and not a vote winner (ie i can't imagine that many Tory or 'floaters' will vote for Labour solely on this policy).

AiBU to think that Labour have really shot themselves in the foot with this idea?

Who is this to? High earners leaving?

It won’t help you

The most worrying thing that you take from these points of view is the sheer self interest and disregard for the foundations of democracy.

The sheer self interest is astounding in this thread. Not an ounce of care for those that simply couldn't afford private. Let them eat cake and all that.

The most worrying thing is lack of insight into economics and behaviour.

Unfortunately, the history of the economy and how we got here appears to be absent from these discussions, unsure if it is a lack of knowledge or a willful misinterpretation of the facts.

Yes, some posts are morally repugnant, I'm unsure how anyone can care so little about their fellow human beings.

disregard for the foundations of democracy

In what way? Behavioural impact on high earners

Or something else

It’s fascinating reading this thread. Proof positive of the bubbles that we live in. I only met a couple of privately educated people at uni and they weren’t particularly inspiring in terms of what private schooling delivers. Both my children went through the state system, DS1 is an A and E Dr in the NHS, DS2 is a chartered aeronautical engineer. There are clearly people who genuinely think state education is appalling .. but clearly good enough for most of us, if not their own progeny.

All children should have equality of opportunity to education as far as humanly possible.

I feel very sorry for those of you who feel local schools are inadequate however perpetuating the problem by opting out because you can doesn’t help.

I think it’s perfectly reasonable to charge VAT, it is, after all, a luxury.

I am sure that your self interest would show up in bucket loads if Labour’s proposal for improving state schools were to come from a proposed increase to the lower income tax rate or some other policy that personally impacts you….!

@Seasaltlady

Thats why they are essentially hypocrites. They want "other people that is not them to pay for it".

Discussions with people with this mentality always descend into circular arguments. They simply do not want to pay for their own public services.

Once you realise that, its easier to conclude "its time to leave this country".

It's a ridiculous notion that only those people who have direct experience of something can care about it. If you own or rent your own house, does that mean you can't care about the state of social housing or rates of homelessness? If you've never been in prison does that mean you can't care about the state of the prison system? If you shop in Sainsbury's does that mean you 'don't have an ounce of care' for those who rely on food banks? It is perfectly possible to use a private school because you believe it provides the best education for your child, but to simultaneously care very much about the quality of state education for those who cannot (or choose not) to do the same.

So you think all high earners vote Conservative and send their children to private school, a sizeable number of us don't!

Well you’re not hit with this tax but maybe the next

Or you could voluntarily stump up more

Sadly, it is evident that government policies that suit the wealthy are the only ones that are worth voting for, a need to influence party politics to pursue a plutocracy but no regard for progressive policies that benefit everyone. It's genuinely depressing to read.

@Goldenbear I would say that increasing the lower tax rate to raise all this much needed money is a very fair approach right? That way we are ALL paying in and ‘everyone benefits’ as you say. Would you not agree?

After 15 years of wage stagnation this is not a realistic proposition, where would the money come from if you think about the unprecedented amount of people using foodbanks or being unable to afford housing.

Equally, Indirect taxes increased income inequality by 3.5 percentage points; the poorest fifth of people paid a greater proportion of equivalised disposable income on indirect taxes at 28.3%, compared with 9.0% for the richest fifth of people in FYE 2022.

The ONS stats obviously demonstrate there is an equality of tax burden, in fact it is not even equal, it is more for the poorest in society.

With these things I think it’s very much a case of “be careful what you wish for”. most people are all for things that don’t effect them but as soon as it does effect them it’s a different story, and for this reason although I’m not against vat on schools fees in principal it would need to be really carefully thought out so it didn’t disadvantage the wrong people and if there are too many exemptions you end up with loop holes.

So one thing for example I was thinking about was education v childcare. A private school provides an element of both, some people have posted they use private school due to the wrap around care not available in state, boarding schools provide an even greater element of childcare having the children overnight.

currently both education and childcare exempt, is the plan to have vat on just education or will childcare also be taxable? If it’s just education then I’d imagine private schools will start billing parents seperately for education with vat on and childcare with no vat, which then reduces the amount of vat being collected. If childcare is no longer exempt and vat is charged then this has consequences for anyone using childcare , not just private schools, they’ll be paying an extra 20% which I imagine is not what the majority of people who support the increase want.

that is such a good point.
the official school ends at 4.30 at our school, then it’s prep and activities time for 1.5 hours….so that is actually quite a significant amount of time….

So that would be the after school and breakfast clubs at state schools potentially being charged vat…..

I am sure they will exclude times children are being looked after but not educated.

I think some people don't care that much about things that don't effect them tbh. Even if they do care, it's not their main concern.

It’s far easier to talk about how much you care if it’s offering up someone else’s money tbf

It's easy to talk about caring full stop. What is less easy for some people is actually caring.

How much extra tax are you willing to put in voluntarily?

@Goldenbear too who has talked about being a high earner

Are you actually expecting posters to give details of how much they earn and how much tax they would be willing to pay to improve services in the UK.🤔