Ways to avoid private school fee VAT

[tiantian1005]

Hi, not looking for a political debate but has this been discussed on how this can be avoided or recovered as in i am sure there is a workaround. Can we pay the school fee via a limited company then claim back VAT or at least claim as expense or can we do this via a trust fund/

In reality, after offsetting input tax and taking the non-VAT rated elements of the final bill into account, the actual increase is very likely to be less than 15% - so just £1500/annum or £125/month

@User2346 I didn't know this, thank you

The salary sacrifice point is really interesting. I hadn’t heard about school fees being paid like that.

Oh please - this narrative that ps parents are the ones who make the sacrifices as they're so special and dedicated is so tired.

If it isn't the kid's fault, whose fault is it? Their parents! Suck it up, or move your kids and say sorry to them if they don't like it.

So you think it's the child's fault? Don't be ridiculous.

As I said it makes no difference to me whatsoever. My only remaining child at school is coming to the end and in any event I could afford to pay the increase (for us it would potentially be an additional £3500 out of taxed income).

However there are lots of parents who can only just afford fees as it is and don't have an additional chunk to spend and silly comments like " my utility bill went up by more than this" fail to recognise that we have all been affected by those utility bill increases - not just state school parents.

The reality is that until relatively recently labour did not look to stand much chance of getting in and this is not a policy they've sought to implement previously when in power - nobody has a crystal ball. If you've just put your child into reception and your finances are tight then that may have been a little short sighted and naive. If your child is in the middle of GCSE years it's a completely different situation and expressly wishing that stress and upset on any child is just horrible. Adults should really know better.

No one yet knows if there will be legitimate ways to avoid paying the VAT as it is a policy without many details at the moment. No doubt Labour will try to draft the legislation to limit these. However schools are trying to find ways to mitigate the fee increase and some schools/school bodies are already taking specialist advice from tax lawyers on what they might be able to do in various scenarios.

@quantmum

Why do you think it's tired

My dc didn't go to PS

I didn't see it's any child's fault, it's clearly their parents' responsibility/fault, and up to them to sort it out. All the ps parents talk about the importance of their choice, their sacrifice for their children and so on - and as such, if their choice is of such primary importance then it's their responsibility, nobody else's.

It's unseemly and obnoxious to characterise people who don't think private education should be tax exempt as child haters. I doubt a single person wants any child to be upset or stressed - but children in private schools whose parents have overstretched themselves financially really do come far far far down the list of upset and stressed children in the UK given the horrific rates of child poverty and myriad other societal factors that deeply deeply affect children on a daily basis.

I couldn't agree more. Well said.

I have dc at private school and vat on fees is a small price to pay to give labour a chance to try and turn around the almighty mess the conservatives have made on everything.
Private school absolutely is a luxury. We are well-off enough to pay more in tax. Why shouldn't we, in principle?
having said that, I do think it's an ill-thought out policy and I would not be surprised if it isn't implemented in quite the way we think at the moment.

I have an excellent 100% foolproof solution for those worried about paying VAT on school fees.
Don't pay school fees.

@tiantian1005 to try and answer the actual question….your school may let you pay the fees some number of years in advance, in which case you’re paying at the current fees level. We don’t know yet if the government will require VAT to be retrospectively charged on those fees paid in advance, so the contract with the school will probably say that if the school has to account for the VAT they can pass that cost on to you.

Such lovey establishments.

Well worth paying for.

Soooo tiny 🎻

Mrs Sunak is that you?

Worry not, we are moving to California in the summer.

100%

Goodness, the sheer nastiness and spite of some of the comments on this thread is really sad to see.

Jeezus fucking Christ! Does it just NEVER occur to you fucking toffs that ALL children deserve a decent school education, and that our aim in society should be to make ALL schools outstanding?!

WTAF 🤷🏻‍♀️

🙄🙄🙄

There are so many much bigger injustices in our society to get upset about, how on earth can this be the one that people choose to get so irate about?!

@ExasperatedManager erm have you met the current government?

@SushiAndRamen

You don't know a thing about me.

Your terminology sounds like something out of dickens - come on

SushiAndRamen
Mrs Sunak is that you?

"Worry not, we are moving to California in the summer"

Ah fuck em all then eh? @Thingscanonlygetsunk