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?

There's a lot of people who are working who couldn't dream of being able to afford to send their child to a private school. It's still a very privileged position to be in.

And what does privilege have to do with my comment?

Firstly, Asperger's is not used as a term any more
Secondly.my two boys diagnosed with autism,have missed years and years of education because the LEA were inept and useless.
Why should your son have his education,just because you can afford private,when mine missed years of education
Seriously how is it fair ,your son got education because you had money for private,and mine didn't, because I didn't have money for private
Neither way is the child's fault
Labour should go further and abolish all private schools

include N to give a global overall figure during the calculation

As soon as possible is my hope
This policy has secured my vote for labour,and also a lot of other people's I know too

Why, because you want to get one over on “rich” people and don’t mind damaging some children’s education in the meantime. Nice!

@Dibblydoodahdah

The bit where you said:

"I think you will find that most private school parents are working people"

There are hundreds of thousands of working people who could never afford to pay for private fees, the parents of private school children maybe working but I bet it's not for average wage

Could I ask why this single policy has secured your vote?
Would it still secure your vote if it brought in £0 for the state?

I mean, let's not forget Rishi's back of an envelope, gammon baiting "national service" policy if we are going there

How awful for the rich parents children to have to slum it with us poorer people in state schools ...how will the children and parents cope .
Any luxury goods have VAT added
And it is a , luxury and a privilege to attend private school
The days of private schools getting round it by calling themselves a charity are thankfully ending .

Median wage is 35K.
2 x 35K is 70K joint income.
With 1 DC in an area with low cost housing and a modest home with secondary fees of 15K per year that would be doable because it is highly likely you would be eligible for a bursary to cover some, or all, of the fees.

Maybe 1 parent is 35K + 1 parent 60K then it is definitely doable but that still isn't a wealthy income as the 60K parent will be paying higher rate tax.

Read it again. Rachel Reeves said she wasn’t putting up taxes for working people. She didn’t state working people on average salaries. She lied whilst she was calling out Rishi Sunak for lying.

Then why are so many private school parents claiming the rise will have them on the breadline if it is so "doable" ?

Have you also factored in the additional costs of:

VAT rebates to private schools

The extra cost of SEN provision in the state sector as the most likely children to move back are those who parents have moved for that purpose rather than because they would always pick independent.

The extra cost of EHCP applications

You also haven't factored in the independent pupils may be 7% of the total, but that rises to nearer 20% for A level (and in Scotland as much as 25% overall in places like Edinburgh).

Given 6th form is a natural break point, you may well see a significant percentage of that 20% switch to the best state schools. At 16-18 parents will have far more choice and far fewer qualms about distance etc.

@Dibblydoodahdah i think your interpretation is a bit disingenuous to have considered that parents who can afford to pay for private school are the ones Labour are focusing on when discussing taxes on working people especially in light of some of the levels of difficulty faced by people on average wage or lower or survive on disability benefits to actually afford to live.

DS got a partial bursary to attend his private prep because of his adhd, then Labour came in making noise about this policy and it was removed. We have no choice but to cover the fee + vat when it occurs because DS will not cope in the classes of 35 (and up to 60 for some subjects) at our local state comp. We can cover this as we’re high earners. I may hate the idea of the tax, will definitely campaign against it, but I have no choice but to pay as I also have ADHD and ASD and my experiences at state school scarred me for life.

But a lot of my son’s friends’ parents are carers and NHS staff and will struggle when they lose their bursaries.

Personally ,I'm bitter ,very bitter ,at how my children have been treated by the lea
Missing years of education,where others in our position were able to buy their childs education.
I feel fundamentally it's wrong to have private schools ,all children should have access to the same standard of education,in my view ,private education keeps the rich richer and poor poorer .. nothing will change my mind on that .
And this policy by labour doesn't go far enough in my view

I think you might find that charity status is not changing at all... Labour have already done a screeching u-turn on that idea.

Perhaps a bit of research needed if this is what secures your vote?

It’s not about “slumming it” (your words) it’s about forcing children to move schools where they are happy and settled which will be damaging to some of them, particulary those that have already been let down by the state sector. Why would you find pleasure in that? Also, VAT has nothing to do with charity status so you are not as clever as you think you are. And you are also wrong that all luxury goods have VAT, that’s not how it works.

Why are people saying "private school is completely unaffordable" while also saying "everyone paying for it can afford it easily and has 20% to spare"? Like, there are people earning £40k and people earning £140k and nobody in between?

Also, the economics aren't only about what's "doable". You have to be willing as well as able to pay the fees. You can't assume everyone who can "just about" cope with the education tax, will want to.

Private education takes children out of your LEA and leaves all the money in it.

Your LEA would have been worse, for you and everyone, without private school.

Independent school saves the country £8-12k per child, £4-6bn. Where's that coming from if you insist on forcing all children into free taxpayer-funded education?

35k each is approx 4.5-5k after tax. If you have just 1 kid and mortgage of 1.3k a month, then with 1.5k bills/food 15k is doable. 3k tax not so much.

Because surely you understand that everyone has a tipping point?

You can't have it both ways ie private school parents are so wealthy that it won't affect them but then argue why private school parents aren't wealthy and can't afford the rise!

I was illustrating that wealthy doesn't mean 6 figure salaries and that many more people could effort private school than most people are willing to acknowledge.

My son's missed years and years of education, before they finally got a special school place ,that failed , because it was the wrong one for their needs .
It's fundamentally unfair that others in the same situation should have that education bought .
I am diagnosed autistic and ADHD ,I'm a carer for my children with special needs,.
My children are high support needs autistic,there's no private school going to offer them a bursary,they wouldn't know the first thing how to help them .
So even being in the position to apply for a bursary is a privilege

This policy won’t do anything to improve state education and you are deluded if you think it will. Neither would banning private schools entirely. You need to campaign to increase standards in state schools rather than attacking schools that are meeting their pupils needs. And that’s the thing, different children have different needs - it’s why I have one in state and the other in private. Comprehensive schools fail a lot of children because a one size fits all approach doesn’t work.