Should everyone shut up about private school VAT?

[mynamechangemyrules]

IABU- please, do tell us again how 7% of the children are SO MUCH MORE important than the rest of the children and how this will TERRIBLY affect EVERYONE and especially poooooor people.

IANBU- stfu about private school VAT and ban any more posts from MN.
It'll be less than the schools have put up your fees in the last 5 years and you've managed that haven't you?

I live in Asia where lots of people are going to be returning to the UK/send kids to boarding school. I hear a LOT of moaning about this from parents sitting near me at school events, sometimes with a lovely side order of complaining about state school kids now being unfairly favoured for Oxbridge. I could do without it! 😁

Yeah..

Agree.

I agree that there has been a lot of complaints and from some, a lack of realisation of the fortunate position that they have where fee paying schools are an option for their children.

At most 7% of parents are worse off because of this, unlike the 99% or so who are worse off because of Brexit.

The only thing I’ve heard people saying in the U.K. (most of my friends have kids at private school) is that they’re already applying for grammar schools, looking at tutoring and looking at state 6th form options.

I was reading that while PS will now have to pay tax on income, the change in status means they can also start claiming vat refunds on spending. Salary expenditure is exempt but apparently 40pc of the expenditure is not salary and can be claimed for.

So if PS pass all the income tax on to parents they will make a tidy profit from claiming vat back on other expenditure.

Has anyone else heard this?

Come off MN. It's not being discussed anywhere else.

Yes it’s boring now. Just pay the extra tax.

Voice of reason. ⏫
Is the OP also bored of the projected implications for state schools or finding it difficult cognitively to process the likely financial manifestations.

Lord Pannick who is one of the top U.K. experts on human rights law has raised concerns that the imposition of VAT on private education may breach the European Convention on Human Rights (this is separate to the EU so the UK’s adherence is unaffected by Brexit.)
Apparently Labour have previously been advised that might be the case.

stfu about private school VAT and ban any more posts from MN.

Bit silly to start a thread about it then, no?

Something nobody is talking about is the fact that if private schools (which, yes are businesses) lose business and/or fail, then the staff in those schools will lose their jobs.

Most staff in private schools are not rich and priveleged and many are working standard jobs. (Not just teaching, there is the catering, cleaning, groundsmen, maintenance etc and also zero hours contract type work like counselling, music tuition etc ).

Also, not all children who attend private boarding schools are rich and priveleged. Many are children of parents in the Forces, or who are working for large charities like The Red Cross. There are kids from deprived homes who are on scholarships (most private schools have programmes to support this model).

There are lots of assumptions being made on this thread, based on reverse snobbery and while I'm not a fan of the private school model, it's not simply a case of 'rich people should stop whinging and cough up'.

Pannick who advised Boris Johnson when he was in front of the Privileges Committee trying to defend his role in Partygate? Also I’m pretty sure that Keir Starmer who was a barrister specialising in human rights law would have researched this beforehand.

Barristers work on a cab rank principle - they take the next client on the list rather than cherry pick.
Lord Pannick is a cross bench peer so isn’t politically affiliated.
He is far more expert in this area than Keir Starmer (and the majority of other KC). He was the co-authored a practitioner text book on Human Rights Law.

Yawn. Of course those affected will object to any new taxes.

Of course they are entitled to have there say; we live in a democracy (of sorts).

The vast majority quite rightly do not care or sympathise. Sick of hearing about this it's been done to death.

I did have to laugh at the 'what if keir starmer had had to change schools' thread.

I went to 6 different schools as a kid (forces child) - the navy would have paid a proportion of private boarding fees but guess what, we still couldn't afford it. I suppose as a working class family it was all the same to us, was it?

I still aced my exams and was the first in my family to get to a RG university, pre contextual offers, so perhaps achievement has more to it than just the school you go to and the children of education-focused parents will, generally speaking, do well (or rebel, of course).

Your bitterness shines through

Yes, everyone should shut up.

That said, I'm not blanket anti private schools - the stability they can give children whose parents are in itinerant professions is one reason. But that keir starmer thread just highlighted the different planet some mn posters inhabit for me.

It’s such a strange attitude though as education tax takes away education options for everyone in the U.K. even if it’s not an option you would choose yourself. I don’t know about sympathy, but surely self interest should outweigh the desire to have a bit of a go at people who are more financially successful than you? Forcing children out of their schools or closing down successful schools really can’t have any positive impact, you’ve just got more people chasing fewer good schools that the tax payer now pays for. We need more good schools, especially where they aren’t tax payer funded, not less. Politics of envy is madness at the best of times, but a country that only produces 54% of the Drs needed every year can not afford it influencing education.

I don’t mind people moaning that they’ve got to pay more tax. We all do that. It’s the sheer snobbery that reveals itself in absolute fear and panic that their little darlings could possibly have to rub shoulders with state school muggles. And the relief in those who are really minted that that apocalyptic scenario would never have to apply to them. God forbid their offspring would be anywhere near the povvos.

Oh and let’s not forget the usual insufferable tropes of ‘we’ve worked really hard to achieve this…’ and ‘our children thrive in an academic environment…’

As if the balance of their bank account makes them a more superior species of human.

Ironic really, the sheer lack of awareness in ones who pay so much for a supposedly better education.

Lots of children go to a mix of state and independent during their education so you might have the wrong end of the stick there. 20% of children go independent at some point in their education.
If you’ve got this view from online posts, it’s probably more parents wanting to avoid their children mixing with people who think education tax is a good idea than anything else.