To have though of a fairer way to fund state education than VAT on private?

[wlakaaf]

State schools are in desperate need of funding.

Money needs raising.

Instead of sticking 20% onto private fees - when those people are already paying 100% of the costs for educating their child, how about this:

Parents of children currently in state schools ought to contribute to their education on a means tested basis. There would be no argument over means, it would be a simple reference to the council tax band of the house you live in. We have bands A-H. I would propose that people in band A-F pay nothing. People in band G pay a fixed charge per year and people in band H pay a higher fixed charge per year.

Keir Starmer has used money to buy a massively expensive house, worth in the region of £2m, in the very tight catchment of a lovely state primary. This is buying privilege, same as buying private education. So why does he get away without paying?

That is completely wrong vat and charitable status are two completely different issues.

private schools don’t charge vat on their fees as education is exempt from vat, making education vat able will mean they charge vat on their fees, it may also mean they other providers of education will have to charge vat on their fees.

charitable status means they don’t pay corporation tax on any surplus they make.

at the minute a school can operate not as a charity Eg . It can make a profit and pay it out to shareholders and it still doesn’t have to charge vat on its fees

You make a reasonable point about those (limited numbers) of schools that operate on a for profit basis - it's not unreasonable that they should be stripped of their charitable status and they should pay corporation tax. But their numbers are relatively small.

The VAT question becomes more tricky as there has to be parity applied across the board for any and all tuition or education services...starting with universities, my quick maths suggests that VAT on uni tuition fees would generate £13bn for the treasury.

If they want more VAT, then why not tax disability aids and adaptations ? Which has the added advantage that no one will care.

Schools that are run on a fir profit basis don’t have charitable status anyway so they can’t be stripped of it.

Re the university snd potentially wider issue that’s why I don’t agree with the policy even though I don’t have kids in private school and will be voting labour at the next election. I work in tax, not specifically vat but I have an above average knowledge on how vat rules and legislation currently work

people want other people that aren’t them to pay vat on school fees. Currently vat is not charged on school fees as education is exempt from vat, so in order to charge vat on school fees we make the supply of education standard rate for vat. Ok in theory but then education provided by universities and nurseries would also be vatable as it’s a supply of education, is everyone happy to pay vat on those supplies of education?

nusery is maybe more childcare rather than education and childcare is also currently exempt so nurseries could get round not charging vat that way, but then private schools a large amount of the time outside the normal school day could be classed as “childcare” especially in the more expensive boarding schools. So do we make childcare vatable as well? Maybe childcare could be made vat able to avoid this loop hole with an exemption for the under 5s? But holiday and after school childcare would then still be vatable making it more expensive.

There are just so many implications from the policy and people don’t want to happen and don’t think about.