How soon might a Labour Government put 20% VAT tax on private school fees?

[jennylamb1]

That really. Given that an election date has been declared for July, how soon might a Labour Government set their first budget?

They can and in fact it’s outrageous that in a rich country with one of the highest tax burdens in the world people with disabilities and their family members are struggling so much.

Well said @Marjoriefrobisher

Does anyone know if this will affect state boarding schools? In our area several people I know send their child to a state boarding school 30miles away as it has a good reputation as a better education than can be offered at the local state schools.

"The proportion of teachers who reported that they expected to still be in the job in three years time has fallen to just 59 per cent, the lowest level since Teacher Tapp started asking the question in 2017."

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/7-bleak-findings-that-show-school-recruitment-crisis-is-intensifying/

Perhaps private school teachers won't want to go back there, or existing teachers will want to stay even less if they each have a few more kids and no more resources.
There's no suggestion that the hoped-for VAT money will be available in any way fast enough to fill the need of those extra kids.
And those kids won't be distributed in neat local packages of 30.
And if more than the complete guess of 7% kids move then there won't be enough VAT money to pay for them.
Or if there are any more than the 0 SEN kids that are accounted for in that guesswork.

All areas are not the same. Kids will not be distributed neatly. Eventual new teachers, if/when there is money for them and they are trained, won't want to go to the tough schools.

> None of this outrage is because of concern over how state schools will cope.

Some absolutely is. Most people are not selfish enough to not care about how other kids are supported. Everyone knows better outcomes help the whole country. And the ones with the most concern are those who will have to move their kids to it. Adding more stress to a stretched system without more money will make it worse for everyone.

100% agree with you @ThursdayTomorrow

Sure it’s just a VAT change from 0 to 20?

Sure it’s a simple VAT change from 0 to 20?

They will have to write in extentions eg exempt EHCP but not SEN etc. It isn't straightforward and that's why Starmer won't commit to a date, he knows it won't be that easy.

No education has always been exempt not zero rated. That has signficant consequences, including that the switch will allow schools to reclaim input VAT.

The other thing is that there will be legal challenges under ECHR due to it bring illegal to tax education previously

It really isn’t straightforward given that all education is exempt at the moment. For example, most pre-schools are privately operated even when they are in the grounds of a state school. Are all pre-schools going to be exempt or just those run by private schools? What happens to those pre-schools run by a different operator to the private school whose grounds they are based in? That’s just one issue, I could go on and on….

Also, registering for VAT as a business isn't quick (1-3 months). Are they going to do all private schools overnight?

@Underparmummy - do you think Kent County Council will get away with opening more grammar schools on the back of this?
I would assume they would be quite happy to attract lots of relatively well off ex private school parents/would have been private school parents into the area?

That is so ironic that more grammars would open as a result of labour’s private VAT policy - I mean, labour abolished the grammar system around the 1960s.

I’ve only ever seen kids get into grammar schools when they have had months of tutoring.

I dont know enough about it but yes, in theory. Grammars and selective by other social means (house prices in catchment/church attendance) are going to be pleased by would be private school parents becoming part of their parental cohort I would assume.

Wow, you really wouldn't think of all the other policies but vote against Labour for this one tiny thing.

I’m sorry if a party was going to make your family thousands of pounds worse off a year you’d still vote for them? Aye, right. Talk is cheap..

I won't be voting for Labour and this policy is a large part of it. I dont think in the final reckoning I could but I do want the Tories to F off.

Richard Tice's Reform might delay the policy for us in a twist...

Labour banned the creation of new grammar schools (existing ones can expand) - it’s unlikely they will suddenly change their mind on this.

Please stop characterising people as 'spiteful' or 'bitter' just because they don't think private school fees should be tax exempt. Shame on you for being so simplistic.

Here's a thought - if the private schools are so wonderful, maybe they should be trying to help the children involved, rather than ps parents thinking that they've somehow made unique sacrifices and are uniquely hard-working and therefore deserve special treatment in being exempt from paying tax for a luxury.

Surely you can't all vote for being in favour of National Service for your kids instead?

Private schools sicken me. The whole thing is so unfair. It isn't just the better education, it's the confidence, arrogance and sense of entitlement they instill. I have met several products of the private school system, and no matter what other people achieve, they still treat them with a patronizing contempt. It's infuriating. It would be bad enough if the sense of superiority was deserved, but in the vast majority of cases it isn't. The woman who lived opposite me, for example, had been to a private school. She left without doing A-levels, was thick as mince and had never read a serious book in her life. But even after I'd completed a PhD she still spoke to me as if I was an idiot.

Well look at all the people who voted for the Tories and Brexit, plunging the country into total disarray!

To answer your question - I would never ever willingly put my children in a position where I didn't have a contingency plan to avoid disrupting their lives to such an extent as PS parents who can scarcely afford the fees seem to be saying will happen if they have to pay the VAT.