To ask if anyone is clued up on the challenge this week to VAT on school fees?

[feesss]

we went to look round a school this morning and we obviously asked about VAT and the lady showing us round said there has been a challenge this week so it may not happen? Is anyone aware of this? I can’t see much online about it?

@BotanicalGreen no I was referring to another poster who was making the incorrect generalized assumption that "these schools are all absolutely minted.". I have not denied those schools exist but they do not represent the majority. The SE is only one part of England. There are many many others who could not be further from minted and that is my personal experience whether you like it or not.

Actually over 20 years fees have risen pretty much in line with state teacher salaries and as 75% of cost is salary + pensions then that's why.

And of course - there’s always the obvious. Children aren’t being denied anything. There are free ( or already paid for in your tax) places of education for all the little Montys and Tillys who’s parents don’t want to be priced gauged anymore by these businesses.

Showing your prejudice there with the Monty + Tilly comment. Is it OK for me to call all kids in state school by 2 chav names? No, thought not!

‘Actually over 20 years fees have risen pretty much in line with state teacher salaries and as 75% of cost is salary + pensions then that's why.’

Actually that’s absolute bullshit and everyone knows it - do you know how many private schools are pulling out of the teachers scheme to screw their staff over?
Tell your though, if teachers have been getting6/7/8% annual pay rises for 20 years I’m going to retrain!

With regards the cost - it’s a culmination of hundreds of schools pooling resources to pay for it. These schools are fighting for survival. Of course they are going to go for the best legal representation they can afford.
I get the ideology behind the policy but ultimately it is not going to generate the income they think it will and children are going to be negatively impacted. The fact they won’t delay until the new school year or phase in the policy gradually speaks volumes.

The ISC website states “A third of pupils receive help with their fees, with a value of over £1.2 billion per year.”

The Labour Government have decided to attack the private education sector and potentially limit the bursaries of the future. I would fully expect the schools with charitable status to stand up for their rights and protect their future bursaries and children with SEND. To not do so, would not be helping the smaller schools in the sector. They are doing the right thing. The smaller schools and individual children with SEND from poorer families cannot afford the legal fees so it is good they are doing this as a joint effort. What would be wrong is just to pass the buck off to richer parents and not put up a fight on behalf of all the smaller and financially weaker schools. Good on them. I hope they win.

It was Bridget Phillipson’s choice to not engage with the sector and all the small schools full of children with SEND. If it ends up costing her dearly, that was her choice all along. Given her stellar education, I am sure she knows what she is doing.

You realise every child that moves from Indy to state costs the taxpayer £7-8K per year. Each child that makes the move spreads the budget thinner as there is no extra income, they just add to the burden to taxpayers.
Indy schools save the state £4 billion per year.

Also - many parents have already been told there isn’t a state school place for them. 10.000 kids less than normal started private school in September. Some of this down to falling birth rates but not all of it.

Actually it isn't bullshit but there you go

“I get the ideology behind the policy but ultimately it is not going to generate the income they think it will and children are going to be negatively impacted. The fact they won’t delay until the new school year or phase in the policy gradually speaks volumes.”

Does it tell us the Cabinet never wanted this to work, knew it would fail and it’s just putting a Labour Party own issue to bed once and for all?

Wish I could believe that but Phillipson et al have always hated indy schools. This is pure revenge

There are very wealthy schools in other parts of the UK too. It is definitely not exclusive to the south East. Repton? Fettes? I could go on.

But how many will actually move? Will yours be moving or will you just pay up?

There is a third option @BotanicalGreen - fight for your rights.

It’s kind of interesting that neither the IFS nor the OBR pointed to the legal risk which was blatantly obvious all along.

Move because we can't afford it. If 10% leave the net income from VAT will be £0
If 6% leave it will cost state £375,000,000 to educate them each year

Of course, but that doesn't mean you don't think about worst case scenario that it actually happens.

thats okay, because those striving private parents are already paying their share of tax, no? Plus all that money they’re going to save on fees… it’ll get spent somewhere along the line, passed to children hopefully ensuring they never need benefits and the like, maybe popped into a pension to be taxed at a later date..

Not really their job to point to the obvious, is it?
They do a report on the finances of various situations. That’s it.

Mine already moved. To grammar. Purely because of VAT.
I hate it but had no choice.

I hope this legal case wins. We might be able to move back then.

It's the same principle as a union. Are you saying all union members are minted? No of course not, they club together to achieve things.

What is there to hate about the grammar school? Doesn't it suit them?

‘The ISC website states “A third of pupils receive help with their fees, with a value of over £1.2 billion per year.”

it’s a private lobbying group representing the private school sector, run by people IN the private school sector, FUNDED by the private school sector… it can state what it likes -
doesn’t make it true.

Apparently some of them have (whisper) working class children there