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

Then stop pretending you give a shit about anyone else except your children. Clearly this is about your loss. Just own that and stop pretending you are better and cleverer than everyone else

Yes it’s a value added tax on children’s education and vocational training.

It’s simply not. It’s a tax on fee-paying education- ie private education.

It literally makes that clear in the government website that you’ve linked to.

State education remains VAT-free since it is provided for free.

By removal of charitable tax breaks do you mean the tax that would be illegal in EU? Eg VAT on education, on special needs schools - that tax?

Are you usually so controlling?

Honestly, the thing about the colouring is absolute nonsense and I'm surprised you fell for it.

It also suggests you haven't read the the HMRC guidance quite as closely as you've suggested.

For an abundance of clarity:

An example of an exempt welfare service is day care services, such as those provided by a playgroup or after school club (but not activity-based clubs, such as dance classes). These services are related to the care and protection of children.

ok so it's VAT and not an Education tax - we've fjnally cleared it up.

An even better abbreviation is VAT, in common parlance since 1973.

I can guarantee you that someone who went to a private school vs me who went to a crap comprehensive had a better education. When I started work, you could always tell the people who had gone to private or grammar; they were better read, had more experience of the world as they had travelled more, just a more rounded person overall. They had also done more advanced work in a lot of subjects such as languages, meaning A Levels weren’t such a shock to the system as I found them.

I mean you’re late to the game. This law was passed several months ago for the greater good. Shout into a vacuum chamber if you wish. Funny that you see other people as spiteful when all you want is what you want and totally refuse to acknowledge how this decision was made to benefit everyone in the UK. But yeah, fuck everyone else, this change was made because some people can’t afford to feed their family… but why should you care?! You don’t clearly!

It’s a low bar to be better than people who are motivated by spite and envy towards children, but yes I do think I am…,just.

'Let them eat cake.'

Why do you think anyone is motivated in that way? I certainly don't feel spiteful or envious of those in private education, I have no reason to.

There is no need for anyone to pay a 20% tax on education - they can use the state education system for free. So I don't really see what your issue is OP; like lots of things in life, if you want to choose a "luxury" option there is VAT to pay as well as the base cost of the service.

Is your issue that you've had to pull your kids out of a fee paying school, because you either couldn't afford or weren't prepared to pay VAT, and you feel your friend is minimising the upset this has caused for you and your children?

Brioche I believe and wasn’t she misquoted? But I totally get where you are coming from!

But they dont make money. There are no shareholders, the income from fees goes straight out again on costs. That's why they aren't businesses just like any other.

OP, I posted about this earlier. You are projecting the only motivation you can comprehend on this because this tax change has hit you more personally than any tax change previously.

But that doesn't make it the real motivation.

Any more than you are spiteful for not speaking up against an increase in small business rates that - to paraphrase you - it will have made a fair few children's lives a bit more challenging, closed some businesses, made a six year old cry because they had to leave their school and home because their parents had to sell up.

All tax and spending changes create winners and losers. It's just that this loss has hit you in a very significant way which you've not had to really experience before.

Whilst a member of the EU, education was exempt from VAT. It's only since leaving the EU that it has been possible for Labour to put VAT on private school fees.

Which raises the question of why the EU believes that education services are a good thing and should not pay VAT. And why many posters here believe that private schools parents should pay VAT.

The only logical explanation is envy and that "if I can't afford something then no one else should have it either ". Which reminds me of a great quote by George Orwell (who was very much on the left): "the left hate the rich more than they love the poor ".

You only have to look at the many comments on this thread alone sneering at 'little Arabella' having to mix with the riff raff' to see it. Literally no-one in the sector thinks that. I know dozens of parents, me included, who have struggled and got into debt to manage the fees because my children were unable to have their needs met in state. Its brilliant that many can, bit its a lie to say its available all. Pop on a few EBSA threads to see what I mean.

Benefit everyone in the U.K.? Who is that? Those 6500 teachers? The half breakfast muffi? It was an ideological spite policy with financial justification bolted on at the end. Education is funded by us all, for the benefit of us all, if we want a bigger budget we all pay more or in some people’s cases stop taking so much.

It hasn’t improved state education at all.

I didn’t say that it had, I literally said it was money back into the economy. It’s all there in my post.

It's a shame one cannot rely on people understanding French because, as you imply, the original comment is more nuanced than the crude English translation 😄

You don’t seem to know how taxes work.

You need to get a grip OP. That you would even consider throwing away a good solid friendship over a perfectly legitimate viewpoint, simply because it differs from your own suggests you are incredibly intolerant & frankly, a shit friend. You sound unhinged & I’m glad you’re no friend of mine.