If VAT is added on Private School Fees, then it will be added onto University fees as well

[AgathaCrispee]

Does it worry you that this new policy of adding VAT on educational fees will also be applied to university fees as well?

AIBU to think this will put university out of the reach of the majority of families who will support their kids through Uni?

Also, for those who do go the level of debt they will come out with will be really big.

If they can apply VAT to private school educational fees then they've setup a case for Independent schools argue that it must be applied to Uni as well.

Is this going to create a situation where only the wealthy can send their kids to Uni?

I'm wondering why no one is asking this question!!

what’s your source?

Private schools currently have charitable status and so VAT exempt. Unis don’t. You are comparing apples with pears.

This is simply not true. HTH.

The two are totally unrelated, university fees wont be affected in the slightest

No it won't.

Private schools are a perk for the privileged.

Not remotely the same as universities

no one asking question as it’s not a stated policy and so you are just making stuff up as I imagine you don’t agree with taking charitable status away from private schools and are goading people into supporting you .. pathetic

I'm wondering why no one is asking this question!!

because

its a little story you’ve made up OP

University education, while paid for, is essential (to both people who need to gain qualifications and to the needs of the country), private primary/secondary education is not. Private education can’t be essential because there is an alternative way of accessing the same qualifications without paying.

It is already becoming unaffordable for some families with the cost of accommodation etc.
A lot of people will come on here saying "don't be ridiculous" etc but there is simply no way of knowing. VAT on private schools is the thin end of the wedge IMO. Once politicians realise they can get away with adding tax to things and can sell it as "levelling up/equalling the playing field" then yes I think we will see VAT on university, private health care and many other things that can be classed as a luxury. University isn't essential and there are other options eg Apprenticeships so it would be easy to claim that university is a luxury.
So many people are so obsessed with socking it to the rich/elite through VAT on private schools fees without stopping to think of the long term implications.

Because it won’t happen. The UK needs well trained graduates, particularly medical staff.

But that can happen through Apprenticeships rather than being a full time Uni student

This is the answer. The proposal is to remove the spurious charitable status of private schools, a byproduct of which is that they will lose the exemption from VAT. It’s not a proposal to add VAT, but the removal of the exemption, an exemption which doesn’t apply to universities, so there is no correlation between their situations.

Private schools should not be classed as charities. It’s a nonsense. If the removal of charitable status means that VAT falls due on their fees, so be it. None of the other things you mention in this post are related to this one proposal.

If you remove the charitable status, the underlying service provided by private schools is education.

As per the UoS quote, educational services are currently exempt from VAT.

Some private schools don't have charitable status and are still exempt from VAT because of this rule.

Labour are looking at circumventing the charity issue:

'Labour’s initial plan was to remove the charitable status of private schools as a way of removing the tax breaks. They have now decided that it will be easier, quicker and less at risk from a legal challenge, to change the tax status without removing the charitable status. They are proposing to make private school fees subject to VAT at the standard rate of 20% as well as removing a discount that private schools currently receive on business rates. These changes could be made as part of a budget or separately.'

https://www.schoolguide.co.uk/blog/vat-on-school-fees-everything-parents-need-to-know#:~:text=Private%20schools%20that%20don%27t,of%20removing%20the%20tax%20breaks.

If Labour go after the educational exemption, then this could be applied to all institutions that provide educational and vocational training, including Universities.

Why is no one talking about this?

Labour aren't getting rid of charitable status though are they!

Huge amount of threads about vat on school fees on mumsnet over the last few days. Some people are clearly getting nervous. And the election hasn't even been called yet, it's going to be a long year.

No, I'm not worried. If it becomes policy of one of the parties then we can talk about it. Until then you're just scaremongering.

Err this. Totally different things

It's not scaremongering to ask questions.

We should all be asking questions of the people we want to govern us.

I'm a floating voter myself, but this is something we need an answer to.

Not all private schools have charitable status, see my previous post. So it's not apples and oranges.

To remove charitable status is not legally feasible and would take longer than the first term of office, and would affect large numbers of charities because of the way the legislation is drafted. That’s why that approach was dropped. VAT is a separate issue - all charities pay/ charge VAT on goods and services which they consume or supply and which are vat rated.

VAT is chargeable on a class of goods / services. Education services covers way more than private school fees so will affect a lot more people than starmer’s soundbite suggests. And it still won’t raise a fraction of the cash that adjusting eg non dom / corporation tax off shoring regimes would. It hits the wrong people for a small amount of benefit but ignites a good argument, based on “if I can’t have it nor can they”. Local authorities who use private education services for special needs pupils will be paying it (but will claim back as througput). People who use tutors will be paying it. Language schools will charge it - another barrier to successful immigrant integration. There are so many more impacts of this lousy policy but fuck the rich, eh?

Don’t know why @AgathaCrispee getting such a pile on from some quarters.

All private schools are working on the assumption that they will no longer be exempt from VAT in the likely event of a Labour Govt and that they should prepare for this fairly soon in that new parliament.

a technical question about how applying VAT to one provider of educational services but not others will work in practice is hardly a goady post, it’s a legitimate query about how a big picture manifesto policy would work in detail.

Totally different things. Private schools shouldn't have charity status as they not charities.

University fees will definitely rise over the next decade. Not because of VAT, but because governments do not want to invest in any education in this country. Universities are struggling financially anyway. The only way they can survive is to charge the students more.

I think rises will happen gradually every few years by a few thousand until it becomes unattainable for many.

Why is nobody talking about it? Because it is a completely invented non issue

Labour have dropped the removal of charity status. It is too hard so they have abandoned that.

So many supporters of VAT are woefully ignorant ot Labour dropping the charitable status removal and can't seem to distinguish between that and the VAT policy. They are 2 separate things.