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.

A lot of university courses are a luxury, should they be subject to VAT ?

What about those who are scrapping together fees because their child has been utterly failed in state already, or has SEN that isn't catered for in state and need small, non disruptive classes? Are they going to be pleasantly surprised?

Great post.

They might very well be. Provision in state schools can be very good indeed. Certainly attitudes to Sen tend to be better, inclusion being the norm.

If parents decide to save the taxpayer huge sums of money, they get double taxed.
If they take up the state's offering of a state education, they cost the state massively.

What the hell is the matter with these people!!

I personally would like to offer young people grants and free fees for their first undergraduate degree. How we get back to that level if national wealth is hard to see.

“If you do have to move schools you may be pleasantly surprised with the results.“

Not for long, Labour are going to mess with state schools too. They have already said they want trouble makers back in the class room, not in isolation, they have already said they want more SEN kids in mainstream rather than fund them properly in special schools/or special units, they want to reform or get rid of Ofsted and standards, they may even get rid of SATS, standards will decline across the board. It is catering to the lowest common denominator and failing SEN children because they do not want to pay for them properly because that would be a long term investment. And like all politicians they just want short term stuff that they do so they can show they did something and they love messing with education, because the long term harm won’t be seen for many years.
So far they have completely ignored the uni funding crisis, the real SEN crisis, the real crisis of many children not being able to access education full stop. And they are going to waste all their time fighting private schools.

I assume you don't have a SEN child in a state school at the moment.

I do.

Have a read of this thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/education/5124043-stop-reduce-suspensions-for-disruptive-and-vulnerable-children

I don’t think they will waste much time fighting public schools. I think there’s a huge appetite for action and change. It looks like January doesn’t it?

You’d be incorrect

But if you have already removed your child from a state school due to bullying, SEN etc and sent them private - are you going to send them back to somewhere where they were so miserable you made the choice to remove them?

Not everyone has the luxury of choice in state - especially if you don't live in a big city.

Even nastier of them - disrupting children mid-year.

The only people with a huge appetite for this are the bursars at Eton and Harrow who are itching to get those big cheques in from the Treasury/taxpayer for their VAT rebate for previous 4 years input VAT on their shiny new boarding houses and sports centres.

Presumably most families have seen this coming and saved for the change or have a plan to move in September? In my experience public school parent read papers and watch the news and are financially literate.

In the Kings speech Labour said : "all significant tax and spending changes are subject to an independent assessment by the Office for Budget Responsibility."

Can't see how it passes?

OBR will see the effects this September...that will only get worse.
This policy raises very little if any money if about 15% kids move or do not start as planned.

Honestly I think people will just start later or finish earlier. The bubble will be burst and many will have a real understanding of state versus public (or private) school. I think it will be good for our country and our children.

Neidle’s very good on tax. But this isn’t about tax statutes and schedules. It’s about the operation and case law of Convention rights.

I suspect Labour know the policy is vulnerable in the courts but are willing to fight anyway. Which is not a bad thing in itself.

The original question was whether it is legal to add VAT to school fees. Sounds like it might be - and that might mean there is a legal challenge to a new Labour law. It certainly seems illegal if we were still in the EU and maybe if we continue to be members of the ECHR. We, in the UK, helped to draft the treaty in 1951. So intriguing that we are dismissing it.
And we can guess what the outcome of a VAT change will be - but we don’t know. But I guess it will be slightly different from our comments - and unlikely to raise the money the government hopes. (All those clever people in charge of private schools will adopt some cunning plan. And the charitable endeavours and the poorest will suffer.) And probably some small schools will close bringing local chaos - and the number of unschooled children will rise. Hey ho.
But those who hate the rich will rejoice! And some of our tax will be spent fighting the legal challenge! Populism wins OK.

It's all very simple to you isn't it? If you can't afford it, just move. I'm sorry, but I'm not ok with being forced to 'just' move my children away from their friends and communities and back into a system which has already failed them once. Why the hell would I be ok with that? Would you be happy if you'd taken a risk on something out of sheer desperation and thrown everything at it, just to have some government (and most of the population it seems) decide that your children are 'cosseted' and therefore don't need stability or roots so rip it out from under you?

Tell me you don’t have a child with SEN without telling me you don’t have a child with SEN

I do, I just disagree with your take on things.

It IS simple and we all have to live within our means.

I was living within my means. It's the goal posts which moved.

I think most people have had that experience in one way or another.

But most people don't have to endure the 'well you had it coming' on the side. Also, these goalposts are moving because of a deliberate decision which is being taken without regard to the hurt it will cause. I'm disappointed that so many people hold such deep rooted prejudice that they refuse to see the difference.

Also, in other circumstances I don't think it goes right to the heart of a decision you make for you children, and which has the potential to have a profound negative impact on them. Not one single supporter of the policy has come up with a single rational reason, which stands up to any scrutiny, for why it's a good idea. It's ideological prejudice through and through and a distraction from putting any meaningful change in place.