If you’re charged VAT will you remove your child from their private school? I’m v stressed!

[Liikklu]

We won’t be able to pay the increase. Only hope is asking grandparents for the shortfall which we don’t want to do. Anyone else in a similar boat? Do you think it will literally be a 20% increase on fees or will schools absorb some of it? Our school has said they will address the matter ‘if and when’ it applies.

It really, really will not take years. There are no courts to go through. Labour will be in charge and they can change the tax legislation. They need to get MPs to vote on it and get it through the House of Lords, but both of these will be achieved because in the end outside of Mumsnet world this is seen by the majority as a good policy.

Labour can and probably will put in forestalling rules as soon as they get in to stop people from being able to avoid VAT by paying upfront.

https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/01/26/school_fee_vat_avoidance/

Yes I do realise that, thank you. Do you realise that if someone is spouting judgmental, spiteful shit they can expect that to be pointed out to them?

That’s odd. The private schools here are keen on high performing ASD kids are academically very able.

Meanwhile what sort of comment would we call yours?
Wanting a fair education system isn't being 'a commie'.

@Mumsycle

I agree with your general sentiment of wait and see, but there are many families that were on the edge of being able to afford private education fees or not that now have to make this decision before the summer holidays. I'm not in that position but would have been a couple of years ago..

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Politicians won’t actually disadvantage their dc. Just put in policies that create this kind of mess for votes. And yes ultra competitive selective state or best state by house price is still a use of funds.

But is a school a charity?
So is it not that parents have been getting it at a cheap rate not that it will be going up. If it does?

I know - I’m in a similar position right now.

Totally unnecessary comment. If you have nothing constructive to add jog on.

That is absolutely an area that needs looking at. We need to tax wealth more rather than income. Absolutely.

This is the issue. Private schools are businesses that make profits for their shareholders. They should never have benefitted from charitable status. This is a tax loophole for the rich that should have been corrected decades ago. I'm sorry for some of the families who were led to believe they could buy their children a step the social ladder but the school don't care about you, just their income. They're laughing about how they got away with it for so long.

DS will stay in his school.

He only has his A'level years to go.
He's on an academic scholarship which means I pay half fees
The school (a charitable trust - no profits) has done a brilliant job, undoing the damage that his state primary did to his confidence and self esteem.

As a single mum, an extra £1,800 a year is a nightmare. I'm over stretched as it is, but I'm determined that Labour's nasty-minded envy won't take away his chance or undo years of my, the school's and ds' hard work. I'll work weekend evenings in a pub if necessary.

How harming one child is good for others is beyond me.

Yup. All Labour and their voters care about is bleating how everyone MUST be the same, no one is allowed to have money, no one is allowed to spend their money on things like private education, because that's "not fair on people who don't earn the same" as them etc. Socialism/communism has never, ever worked successfully for any country.

@Haveyouseenmylemons Why? Other than for reasons of the politics of envy all that will happen is that you'll just watch that wealth leave the country as it did in the seventies. And the your envy will have nowhere to focus and the economy will have nowhere to go.

Not true in any sense. If private school fees were £10,000 a year cheaper, more parents could afford them who presently don't have that choice. As you support the current situation, that excludes them, does that make you totalitarian?
You are exaggerating wildly.
This thread has revealed the nasty little Tory attitudes that so many on MNET actually have- some of the comments about State education and schools and, by association, the children who attend them, are disgusting.

Many of you say your children have SEN which have not or would not been addressed in the State system- that's because of crass, badly funded Tory policies. But do vote for them again.

what proportion of private schools are businesses? It must be vanishingly small. Most are non-profit making educational trusts.

Nasty attitudes yes - but mostly aimed at the op or dc who can read well at five or whatever

It’s like 6th former political bingo.

the rich are nasty

the nasty capitalists don’t care

the rich are laughing at everyone

the rich are using tax loop holes

I suggest you go and read Animal Farm and stop bleating at the barn wall.

Whether or not you can afford the fees, you should now seriously think about whether it is worth sending or keeping your DC in a private school. I can hold my nose and pay for my youngest teen to finish, but I don’t think we will. We have now contacted our local 6th form college and are attending their open day in July for A’level’s.

You need to weigh up more than the cost. Even with the Conservatives in, I am already seeing push back on PS kids. I didn’t even bother looking for work experience for my year 10 as every company we approached for my older one in their chosen field told us they only take state school DC. You’ve seen the vitriol on here and in the media, it will get 10 times worse when Labour get in. When I did the Uni rounds, I saw pushback too.

My youngest is in a good place and doesn’t need help, and he will just get on with it and do his best. He has been taught great study skills and discipline. Also, a lot of his friends are moving across too, so he has some friends there.

For me it is a combo of things. The pushback I saw from some Unis we spoke to, the increase in cost, the fact that my DC is mature enough to start himself, the backlash, and the fact that out of all the parts of the school, I feel 6th form is the least needed in the private sector. Also, there is loads of tax coming out of my house. I have never once taken a school place for any of my DC, a dental place, and now I even pay to go the doctor for them as they are my GP’s least priority. It’s time to start getting something back for my tax. I’m sick of paying for everyone else.

I’ll save over 20K a year/ 40K over 2 years if VAT comes up.

@Wanting a fair education system isn't being 'a commie'. Oh do not be ridiculous. Keep up with the thread and do not come pretending that closing private schools is not a communist wet dream.

This ‘politics of envy’ stuff really pisses me off. The number of families Who COULD afford fees but have decided not is huge.
There’s such arrogance in the assumption that private schools must be better and therefore anyone not using them can’t afford to and must be jealous…
The reality is many people don’t think they’re better at all, and wouldn’t want their child anywhere near them.
If the sampling of parents of private school kids on here is any indicator of the kind of people who ‘go private’ then we know WE definitely made the right decision.

Have your private schools, but stop pretending they’re for the greater good in some way - they really aren’t. And stop pretending they’re charities - they aren’t. And stop pretending that they’re ‘better’ in some way than state schools - they alrent, just as all state schools are equal.
And stop bemoaning taxes being added fairly to a service - a luxury one at that.

‘. I don't know anyone with kids at private school who doesn't drive a nice car, have several holidays a year, live in a decent house and afford other luxuries (hobbies, nice clothes etc).’

I have seen that people of similar demographics and incomes tend to stick together, even within a private school. It’s fascinating. So you end up thinking that everybody around you is like you.

Whilst you are right in a sense that the tampon comment isn’t relevant specifically, in a broader sense, it is.

The reason some people are struggling to afford basic necessities, is because the system is stacked against them. It would be too long to post all the reasons why, but we all know it’s true. This idea that ‘if you just worked harder you too could be rich’ is simply not true. Private education is part of the system that stacks things in favour of the richest. And all the hand wringing about VAT on school fees, whilst understandable, is a kick in the gut to those living in poverty and very jarring to those of us who work with children and families.

I have seen it from both sides. I grew up very poor. I chose private education for DC before we moved. I work with families who are very deprived in lots of ways and have very little chance of that improving.

So on a thread about a fair VAT tax on something that is, without doubt, a luxury, for the few that can afford it, you can expect some comments that point out the privilege held in that community (of which I was a part of) and really that would ideally be treated with kindness and compassion as, in this situation, you (we) are part of the problem, whether we like it or not.

The first thing that will happen is legal action. And why are you so confident this vindictive policy that harms only children will sail through the House of Lords?

The telegraph have just published an interesting article that confirms indeed there are nowhere near enough schools places to cover the exodus, so yes super size classes are coming to your child’s school…and will begin in September.