Labour’s private school tax raid ‘likely illegal’

[Zizzagaaaaaww]

Thought some may like to read this article

archive.ph/i1XD3

Sir Keir Starmer’s planned VAT raid on private schools is likely to breach human rights law, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Labour leader risks falling foul of European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) law <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/i1XD3/www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/labour-private-school-tax-moronic-policy/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">over his party’s flagship policy, one of Britain’s top constitutional and human rights lawyers has warned.
Lord Pannick, who has taken on some of the UK’s most high-profile court cases, backed legal advice warning that making private schools subject to VAT was likely to breach ECHR law.
He told The Telegraph: “It would be strongly arguable that for a new government to impose VAT on independent schools would breach the right to education.

“That is because all other educational services will remain exempt from VAT and the charging of VAT on independent schools alone is designed to impede private education, and will have that effect.”

The KC and crossbench peer said that the Labour policy risked breaching two articles in the ECHR which protect the right to education.
He referred to legal advice written in response to Labour policies as far back as the early 1980s, when the country’s most senior lawyers warned that plans to end tax exemptions for private schools or abolish the institutions altogether would likely breach international human rights law to which Britain is signed up.
Previous leaders of the party have floated the idea of taxing private schools as part of plans to integrate them into the state sector. Under former party leader Michael Foot, the Labour manifesto of 1983 pledged to “charge VAT on the fees paid to [private] schools”.
The policy to abolish the schools was eventually shot down by senior lawyers, who argued it could be at odds with the ECHR and spoke specifically about the risk of imposing VAT.
While Sir Keir has ruled out abolishing private schools, he plans to force the institutions to pay business rates and 20pc VAT on tuition fees.
In an unearthed legal opinion from 1987, seen by The Telegraph, the late Lord Lester and Lord Pannick, prominent human rights lawyers, concluded a government “could not lawfully prohibit fee-paying, independent education or remove the benefits of charitable status or impose VAT in respect of such education” while a member of the court.
A foreword to the opinion written in 1991 by Lord Scarman, who served as a Law Lord in the precursor to the Supreme Court, said it would “encourage a challenge which could be mounted by taking the argument to the [ECHR]… if ever a government should seek to abolish or discriminate against [private schools]”.
The opinion was jointly written by Lord Lester and Lord Pannick as advice for the Independent Schools Council (ISC) and later published in its journal. Lord Pannick confirmed his belief that the argument still stands today.

They didn’t pay Vat in the 6th form l worked in.

And they are still part of state education so not subject to vat.

No-one is disputing any of this but Labour aren't using VAT to address this. The argument still stands that it is a dog whistle policy that will bring in near enough £0 and Iis a distraction from the point that Labour aren't committing to any other funding of state schools. They aren't even talking about equalling the inequalities that currently exist in the state sector.

I think it’s a great policy.

All schools pay VAT on purchases which have VAT on them. Some schools, like Academies can claim the VAT back. If you make exempt supplies then you are restricted by how much you can claim back. Once private schools are making VAT supplies (their fees) they will be able to claim more VAT back

I’m really confused how you come to think so as a SEN parent, ArseInTheCoOpWindow?
This policy is more likely to cost the state purse rather than financially benefit state schools if it’s implemented. Putting more pressure on state schools than there was before. And on SEN kids.

@EHCPerhaps this is the message that needs to be out there together with all the issues you have listed. Just don’t understand why people aren’t getting this

I taught under both a Labour and Tory government.

l know which government helped SEND the most.

l expect the same with the j coming Labour government. And if the vat in private school fees helps state SEND kids even better.

Private schools don’t really support much SEND. They take the easier ones. But the biggest rise in SEND is EBSA.

This needs a national intervention. A few private schools aren’t going to cut this.

Private schools do pay (input) VAT. This policy is about output VAT, which parents (not the schools) will have to pay.

Love the idea that I'm not 'paying my way' cus I've got a child in private. Two higher rate tax payers, working full time. Both covered by private medical including dental. One parent in the process of building a tax generating business. Our household is certainly a net contributor. People are so blinded by spite they can't be rational.

Yes the ‘not paying your way’ is an odd one

It is just emotion over rational thinking

So the Telegraph is now in favour of remaining in the ECHR then.

Pleased we sorted that out.

I'll take a lot of this on the chin. I also think the money we earn and the social capital we've built gives us a huge advantage. I don't think I work harder than lots of minimum wage people for example. We have made choices to work harder to buy a really lovely education for our kids instead of stepping back to enjoy life. And that comes at a cost of pressure. But I won't accept that we don't pay our way.

Yeah my thoughts exactly

You got an EHCP including the time waiting for a refusal to assess tribunal in 20 weeks (from first requesting an EHCNA to the LA finalising)? That is unheard of.

We got refusal to assess in May. They backed down in October. We had it before Christmas. The assessment itself took 20 weeks.

So you didn’t get an EHCP in 20 weeks. The 20 weeks timescale is from EHCNA request to finalising (although the 20 week timescale doesn’t apply to those who have appealed. Their timescales are different).

No, it was faster than that. I was wrong.

Assessment began 21st October. Issued 22nd December. So 9 weeks. So much much faster than 20 weeks. Please don’t tell me it takes x time. I know exactly how long it took, l lived every minute of it.

She was in special provision by end of January this year.

Would you like me to upload the dates?

So 3 months from agreement to assess, issue and re entry to education.

My point was you didn’t get an EHCP in 20 weeks. Because the time starts from the EHCNA request. It is misleading to say you got an EHCP in 20 weeks when you didn’t.

I have lived under Labour and Tory too and completely agree with you that as always the Tories run down public services and disinvest in the public infrastructure during their terms, to the point it will take Labour at least a decade or more to reverse and improve. If we’re lucky. This isn’t the late 90s with a likely decade of growth ahead. The environment and international relations and fabric of the UK post Brexit and pandemic are too fucked for that to be likely.

As i have said upthread though, I will continue to vote Labour as I have done all my life and to work when I can (due to the needs of my SEN child) in the public sector. This is because I believe in the necessity of public services like healthcare and education.

I’m voting Labour even though I really feel gutted by this divisive sleight of hand policy about VAT on private school fees. Starmer must know it’s not going to achieve what they say it will financially, if the IFS have said so. That in itself is disappointing because I have had enough of political mendacity after all these years of Tory lies.

It’s a policy that’s going to cost me personally thousands if implemented because, as I have said I have a kid in private because of their SEN. Prior to that my kid was out of school for months.

For those who don’t know, there isn’t any state special school option that’s immediately available to your child once everyone in the mainstream school has agreed that your child’s needs can’t be met there.

There is a wait of at least 12-18 months with a fair wind, in the state sector for a special school place. More, if you don’t have an EHCP. And lots of parents don’t because at first you don’t know you need one, you don’t even know it’s SEN that the child has. Plus schools around us take around a year to draft the EHCP even if you’ve already evidenced the SEN with a private diagnosis because you’ve been on be NHS waiting list for two years. Because with the best of intentions schools are completely overwhelmed.

So I have the luxury of choice right now of trying to also find thousands a year for private schooling with the help of family around us, so that we can give any education to my child whose needs can’t be met in state mainstream this year at all.

Yes it’s disability discrimination that the state provision is so lacking. There are thousands of families being failed in the state sector like this. I am lucky enough to have a (for me, very difficult) way out. And now Labour will make that even harder for us.

So I am voting for Labour not because Labour promises me or my child anything individually that I can see in the manifesto, but more, because the Tories credibly threaten families like mine with dire poverty and further degradation of the infrastructure and community around us due to all public services like the NHS, schools, policing, local councils, transport, being starved to death with lack of funding as part of their core political Tory DNA.

What makes you think kids in state with SEND will be helped by the VAT raise on private schools when so many others are saying that they won’t? The money even if it could be raised, isn’t earmarked for SEND kids in state. And instead of raising a profit, it’s already been calculated that it will much more likely COST us, the taxpayer to implement this policy.

To make it worse, there’s no commitment to raise money for education (let alone SEND education) from anywhere else with the silly pledges not to raise other taxes. So it seems plain that SEN kids in state (the new ones going in, as well as the ones already there) are going to lose out.

It would be a better support for kids with SEND, for Labour to pledge NOT to implement this policy.

Besides which, according to AS, you hadn’t seen the draft on the 23/12, so I’m not sure how they finalised by the 22nd. That would be completely unlawful.

And; if anyone’s reading this in the Labour Party, there’s a sexism element too here. Boys’ SEN gets picked up typically much earlier than girls’ SEN, due to the stereotyping of conditions like autism and ADHD.

And so typically boys will be more likely to have more years of their school life with an EHCP and the chance of some appropriate support, than many girls with the same conditions do, as her family or school will apply later on, if her needs are recognised at all within her school years.

But @ArseInTheCoOpWindow where have Labour said they are going to increase SEND funding? Why haven’t they got something in the manifesto listing what they are going to do. This policy isn’t going to help, especially if it ends up costing money

The draft was issued 22nd.

We had to find the place of education first.

Please stop telling me about it. Just because it didn’t fit into your timescale doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

But it didn’t happen. You didn’t get an EHCP in 20 weeks.

If a draft wasn’t issued until the 22nd then an EHCP wasn’t issued then. An EHCP isn’t issued until it is finalised.