Restaurant Takings vs School VAT

[PollyG23]

Restaurant takings are down YTD and most commentators are saying that it is due to NICS and min wage but surely a big factor is due to the VAT on school fees which is eating into middle class discretionary spending- why is no one mentioning this? (Or maybe I just haven’t seen anything?) What else is getting eaten into? (No pun intended)

Wow. Wish I had a holiday home in Cornwall and had skiing holidays I could release. I must be the absolute dregs of the private school parents, just with the one house and a job. The 20% sucks but I have to manage.

Back to my point about VAT being too high atm- i think a reduction would really help everyone particularly those at the lower end of the income scale who are disproportionately affected

You're quite right, I should have been more accurate/ specific.

Only 7% of children receive private education. Allowing for siblings it’s only about 4% of households with school age dc so 96% of households with school age dc and 100% of households without school age dc are unaffected by this niche CoL increase. Everyone has been affected by food and fuel rises. All middle income earners are affected by wage stagnation. The crux of it is 20% VAT off the top makes many things simply unaffordable and a 40% increase in minimum wage over the last few years has disproportionately affected retail and hospitality. It’s “made work pay” to a certain degree but has made many basic jobs not worth the cost of having them done. Some restaurants are not taking walk ins now so they can just rota the bare bones staff they need for bookings. You don’t want 2 spare waitresses, a spare bartender and a spare sous chef propping the walls up on a slow night costing you £60 an hour between them - £420 over a 7 hour service “just in case it gets busy”.

You might be right, but conflating VAT specifically on private schools with what is essentially a broader VAT policy issue and cost of living problem for the majority of the population, is misleading. It just sounds like yet another private school fees thread.

We're eating out less because a pub we liked has changed hands and the menu has gone from freshly made and interesting to mundane bought in. I'm not paying £15 for sausage and mash or chilli.

7% of CHILDREN attend private school. About 1% of adults have a child in private school.

We spend considerably more than the VAT increase on eating out.

However, as seems to be the general theme on here, we have drastically reduced the eating out (and also takeaways) due to the hideous costs and falling standards. Now we will only eat out if it’s somewhere we know will be worth it. Whereas before it was multiple times a week.

Totally understand that the majority of increased costs of food are way out of the restaurants’ control but unfortunately it does make you more choosy.

Only 6% of kids go to a private school in the UK so no.

VAT on private school feels will probably account for about 0.0001% of the restaurant takings being down. It's an utterly tenuous link. The biggest reason restaurant takings are down is that all economic and social classes are reducing their purchases. No-buy and preserving money are big habits this year along with cost of living crises. Also, the first couple of months of the year are always the lowest for spending across all sectors really.

private parent really will try to shoehorn VAT discussions into anything!
no, because the majority of adults aren’t cutting back on restaurants because they lost a tax break on school fees - they’re cutting back to pay for food at home, for energy bills, petrol costs, mortgage hikes and on and on.

When not taxing education is described as a tax break, you know something is very wrong.

PollyG23the UK started paying VAT when it joined the EEC in 1973 @ 10% we’re now at 20%,

I meant to say that there was a sales tax before the intruduction of VAT
But the VAT made it uniform

Prior to the introduction of the 10% VAT rate in 1973, its predecessor the Purchase Tax was set at 25%.

Also in 1973 the top rate of income tax was 75% plus a 15% surcharge for income from investments over a certain amount.

Well I’m retired and could afford to eat out but rarely due, mainly because the food is poor quality and the service whilst not rude is unfriendly.
I actually ate out at the weekend and the waitress pulled a face when I asked for a serviette, despite the fact the restaurant was half empty and she had just been standing around.

Will NOBODY think of Gordon Ramsay?!

Of course the schools are also increasing their fees by inflation. Their biggest cost is staff so they are hugely affected by the ni rise.

the council also increased my council tax (a larger than inflationary rise) - maybe they could have just tightened their belt too.

No they don’t. When my kids were younger I literally would not have been able to do my job if reliant on the state system starting at 9am and finishing at 3pm every day. That is not even half a day in my industry. Many parents use private schools for the on site always available quality wrap around care to enable them to work in their role. It becomes self fulfilling though - I would work a lot less if I didn’t have school fees to pay - or go on more foreign holidays VAT on school fees is just another example of this governments mismanagement though. I don’t know anyone that thinks they are doing an okay job let alone a good one.

Can you evidence this? I think it’s very unlikely that one in every 5 children goes to private school at some point.

https://tutorful.co.uk/blog/private-school-statistics-uk-independent-schools

• 1 in 5 adults in the UK has attended a private school as a child
• This figure rises to 33% for those in London

Or some actual evidenced statistics https://www.civitas.org.uk/2023/02/24/private-schooling-in-britain-a-snapshot/#:~:text=Pupils%20at%20independent%20schools%20consistently,per%20cent%20for%20sixth%20formers.

Sorry, that’s just not credible. 7% of children go to independent schools. The percentage of A level candidates is higher (12.2%), but that’s largely because not everyone does A levels…how does that increase to 20%? It’s a very small survey taken by a rather biased source.
Edit: reading further down it claims 1 in 4 adult males went to independent schools. Surely you can see that’s quite obviously nonsense?

I just looked at the first source AI gave me. Happy for you to take it up with them,

Restaurants are struggling because they’re too expensive and service & food quality is crap. They’ve massively gone downhill the last few years.