AIBU to reconsider a long friendship over support for education tax?

[CoconutRumcake]

A close friend of over 15 years last night unashamedly said she supported the children’s education tax. To put this in context, she is godmother to my ds and has seen first hand what damage this has done to children and families as well as her own sister losing her job when the school closed. She had maybe drank too much and has apologised over text this morning, but I really can’t shake the feeling that I don’t want to be around her.
AIBU -try and move past it
YANBU -it’s run it’s time

Do you support the deeply unpleasant comments made about children having their education and friendships disrupted when schools have closed or they have had to leave? Often with not another suitable place to go? (See my earlier comment about unmet needs in large state schools). Usually involves stereotypical 'posh names', 'riffraff' and 'small violin' references.

Yes. The tax is on ‘optional’ educational choices. Not on a child receiving an education.

I am very certain that your children are doing fine. At the sort of salary you have, you aren’t exactly sending them to a state school filled with knife crime and gangs. They’ll be going to a totally reasonable school. Of all the things that I worry about, the impact of rising private school costs on 7% of the luckiest children in the UK isn’t on my list.

I hope the 1B raised from this reasonable tax goes straight into funding SEN schools as that’s the big gap here. For all children at all income levels. Once we sort out that issue, private schools can focus on the wealthy and leave me out of it.

OP, in most cases you pay for a product or service, you pay tax. Yes, some people will pay the plumber a reduced fee for cash in hand to dodge the tax, but that doesn't make it OK.
Those schools were and are businesses. Some may turn a profit, some may not. Businesses pay tax.
Because these schools are not in any way actually charitable, they have passed the tax on to the consumer - the parents.

The tax is on the service, which just happens to be education.

Irrespective of your friends thoughts on education, tax etc unless a friend has extremist views like murdering people for their beliefs then yes, you are being unreasonable to distance yourself from them over political differences.

Infact I'd go one step further and say the sort of person who does distance themselves from a friend over differences in political opinion really needs to have a word with themselves over their need to have their beliefs validated by others.

unfortunately sometimes bad things come out of good things. It’s sad for the children but plenty of children move schools and they are very resilient creatures :)

It’s just VAT on private school fees. Calling it a “tax on children” makes it sound like something it isn’t. That doesn’t mean you have to like it, and I completely understand why you feel hard done by, especially when your children have lost out.
Unfortunately, changes in education funding have affected lots of families over the years. People could once go to university essentially tuition-free, and now Welsh drama students are losing funding to study at certain institutions outside Wales, which could directly affect my DS.
We’re not always going to agree politically, and that’s fine. I certainly won’t choose politics over friendships.

Do you think Kumon should be tax free?

There hasn’t been a removal of charitable status. It is spiteful to children who have had to move schools. It is spiteful to reduce education options for children.
You support it, but that’s because you don’t understand the policy, which I can forgive, where as my friend fully does.

That's the absolute lie that we tell ourselves to make us feel better. The kind of children who are losing out here are NOT resilient. They are in the private sector often precisely because they are vulnerable, often due to SEN or ND. Its very very easy to say 'its sad but..' when you don't personally know these children. I do.

I do understand actually. I believe all schooling should be free and state owned like in Finland. Private schooling is morally unacceptable. That is my opinion.

What's Kumon?

And I've yet to see one single definable benefit to come from this to the state sector. Not one.

Maths tutoring

It’s a tax on children’s education and vocational training. It sounds like exactly what it is.

Thanks

Tutoring service for children, I picked Kumon as it has a reputation for good results and it’s largely well off families that send their kids to Kumon…. I’m just wondering where OP draws the line in taxing ‘children’s education’

It says tax is now payable on education services provided by private schools, private means non government funded and school is an institution where children are educated. So a tax on education provided to children by any non government funded organisation. A tax on children’s education

You can't keep editing out important parts of the definition until it fits your narrative. It's not a tax on children's education, it's a tax on children's private education - there's an important difference there.

Quite clearly, the type of person who thinks a 20% tax on children’s education is a good things. A pretty thick and spiteful type of person

You sound pretty thick and spiteful yourself, if you genuinely can't understand that some people (many people, as it happens) have a different point of view from you. If you choose to cool this friendship, that's a shame, but it seems she may have had a lucky escape if you are so narrow minded, and unwilling to accept that other people are allowed to think differently from you.

For reference, she is a net tax payer herself

I genuinely don't understand what this has to do with anything?

But the tax doesn’t apply to state schools, which the majority of the children in this country go to, it only applies to private schools and independent schools, fee paying schools basically.
the tax is not on ‘children’s education’ as a whole because most children go to government funded or state schools.

UK is the only country in the world which taxes education.

This is incorrect. For starters New Zealand, Malaysia & Singapore all apply their standard rate of sales tax to private schools.

Again, why is it a tax on children’s education when there is an alternative available via the state at no cost ? You seem hell bent on dropping the word ‘private’ at every turn.

You can argue that the VAT loophole should never have been allowed in the first place but it's odd to say closing a loophole is a new 'tax' - Or should past tax losses be recovered ?

this and your OP make it clear you are only interested in hearing people tell you how awful she is and that you are right.

The reality is: you are being silly and people can hold very different opinions about things and still remain friends.

FWIW: i think the "education tax" as in paying VAT on private school fees is right. And i went to private school.

Incorrect, again this has nothing to do with charitable status or profits or being a business. It is a tax on education paid by the children for education services.

Yes your last point is correct, the service just happens to be education in this instance.Now do you think it’s a good idea to tax children’s education? And why only aged between 5 and 18?

Yes. I do write that. Nobody is taxing education. They are taxing the choice of the parent to decline that education and send their child elsewhere. Good for them.

Yes, I can’t wait until they close the tax loophole on nursery care, private medical, university education and breathing.