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!!

People link them because they are, at present, covered by the same exemption ie no taxation on education.

When this principle is withdrawn in Britain, then it could mean taxation on universities and preschools as well (and it does seem illogical to tax only the compulsory education years).

So yes, we do need to watch out for the administrative competence in drawing up the new definitions and rules (and I have a pretty low opinion of current standards), but I don't think anyone has an intention to tax education deliberately, other than Labour at private schools.

Small businesses are VAT exempt anyway aren't they so it wouldn't effect private music teachers. I would have thought it would be pretty easy to exclude specialist schools too from paying VAT although @Fleeceflop would know more.

I can see wording to cover secondary education in some way, and then specialist sen schools having to apply for some form of accreditation that would exempt them from the changes. This would mean that those parents who send sen kids to mainstream private schools would still pay the VAT. Ballet lessons etc are not my specialty. But when it comes to private piano lessons etc a tutor would have to have a turnover over £85k (the normal vat registration threshold) before they’d have to register and start charging VAT.

@Fleeceflop - my apologies, I wasn’t very clear. I meant the Royal Ballet School, Purcell’s, Chatham- specialist schools of that ilk where some parents pay the full fees but many do not or have free places.

That was meant to say Chetham School
of Music.

I wonder if it could happen to the university of Buckingham? That’s some sort of private isn’t it?

Not on the pattern being proposed here, which is the imposition of sales tax on fees for the delivery of education by schools - which will apply whether the school is set up as a business or a charity (and not be relevant to state sector where no fees are charged)

@meditrina Thanks for the info!

This is not how VAT works.

Private schools do not charge VAT because at the moment education is an exempt service. It is not because the private school has charitable status.

Day centres that aren’t charities are already having to pay 20% vat . Making massive impact on the disabled & yet wealthy folk are whining because they will have to pay more for a private school
So blooming selfish

Universities do have charitable status though

Why do people keep accusing others of being Tories for asking complex tax questions on this proposed policy? Parents of SEN children in SEN schools and private schools, forces families, parents of children with DFE funding in specialist music and ballet schools genuinely do not know what will happen to them and their children. Let alone teachers and staff in private schools. All many of us are saying is that if you propose to add this VAT in the first budget many people need time to prepare and you have to be absolutely clear on the implications.
And no I am not going to be fobbed off. Not after Brexit when we were first told a) the population would not vote for it and b) there isn’t going to be a hard Brexit it will be SM/CU etc and we got the opposite. We absolutely need to understand the implications on the entire Education sector. That affects everyone with any stake in it.

“Pumpkinpie1 · Today 14:56

Day centres that aren’t charities are already having to pay 20% vat . Making massive impact on the disabled & yet wealthy folk are whining because they will have to pay more for a private school
So blooming selfish”

Can you please post a link backing this up and specifying what you mean exactly so the rest of us can understand?

Do you mean for profit run day centres where councils have to pick up the tab (the type that foreign companies have muscled in because they are so profitable)? Or something completely different.

Is it this?
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/revenue-and-customs-brief-9-2021-vat-liability-of-daycare-services-supplied-by-private-bodies-in-england-and-wales/revenue-and-customs-brief-9-2021-vat-liability-of-daycare-services-supplied-by-private-bodies-in-england-and-wales

“Private schools do not charge VAT because at the moment education is an exempt service. It is not because the private school has charitable status.”

But for daycare centres whether they are charitable or not does affect their VAT treatment but only in England and Wales. Those constituted as charities do not pay the VAT under the applicable VAT legislation. Maybe there is an appeal to the Supreme Court.

@meditrina - let's focus on the politics and what a Labour government would want to acheive. Charging students more makes no sense.

Labour have put forward VAT on school fees as a stated policy. They now need to detail how they will achieve that by not causing chaos.

This is politics and its important we don't just blindly accept sound bites without looking behind these statements. We fell foul of that with Brexit and Covid, let's not repeat the same mistakes.

If people can't afford to send their kids to private school after VAT is added, then maybe they just need to tighten their belts. Stop having so much avocado on toast, takeaway coffees, and the latest iPhone.

an “important discussion”

but one that you didn’t want tied to your user name history

genuine question… why?

Because I knew some posters would go trolling through my posting history to pick me apart trying to point score and detract from the discussion.

Also I would be stalked by others whenever I posted on another thread and be accused of being a Tory activist.

Your post actually reinforces my thinking.

Hope that helps.

This

What sort of chaos and who would be effected?

i wonder what they’d find to “point score”! 😂

This is politics and its important we don't just blindly accept sound bites without looking behind these statements.

nor do i blindly accept threads started by user name change / new OPs on a wholly unsourced issue