VAT on school fees - High Court Challenge.

[EverythingAllatOnceAllTheTime]

Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private school fees in January faces a High Court legal challenge over claims it breaches human rights law.

Lawyers have written to HM Treasury arguing the policy discriminates against special needs children and has threatened court action if it is not dropped.

Showtime…

My understanding is that VAT won't apply for children with an EHCP. The issue is that it is difficult to obtain an EHCP.

I find it very telling that the legal challenge is only being brought now and that it is focused on the specific question of VAT on school fees rather than on the wider issues around support for children with SEN and the difficulties with getting an EHCP/appropriate support within the state sector.

It would seem that some are suddenly extremely concerned about the human rights of SEN children from wealthy backgrounds despite having shown little interest previously in the human rights of SEN children from poorer backgrounds.

Let's be honest, if this was really about "human rights", the focus would be on other issues. This is simply about parents believing that they shouldn't have to pay any more tax.

I hope this legal from the greediest and most entitled parents in the land action fails.

Part of me wonders whether Labour were fully expecting this to happen and for this policy to be defeated on legal appeal. 🤔

Good for an election campaign but unlikely to actually be put into practice.

Given the administrative and financial costs to actually implement it and the minimal return, they may be quietly happy to kick it into the long grass.

I am pissed off that it seems my sons special school with have to put VAT on fees, and then the LA will have to go through a refund scheme. It means the school has to sort out charging vat which is extra work so it will put fees up

I also dont know how the business rates relief changes will impact them too. I know it just means it will cost the LA more but part of the consideration was costs when they awarded this school.

There isn't a state school for the children at the SEN school he goes to and I get that the LA will claim.it back but it feels very wrong the school has to apply it at all.

To add, it's completely irrelevant what people actually think about the rights and wrongs of this policy from an emotional perspective. It will purely be based on the law and what can be argued based on legal precedent. The judge will ultimately decide purely on these parameters. Feelings and politics won't be a factor.

You mean the socialists who want those that have worked their socks off running businesses and employing many, to fund them? I agree with you, the "they can afford it and I can't" jealous brigade suck.
You can afford private education, cool, well done. You can't, that's fine there's many of us in the same boat.

What human rights law does it break exactly?

That's what your gang are doing. 🫣

@Jorvik1 "I want Labour to ban private education and grammar schools".

Why would they do that? Their kids are privately educated or did you not know that?
Labour are the biggest scammers going.
They're not for the working class or looking out for the little men, they're very willing to contribute and enable the breakdown of society and all this VAT on school fees nonsense does is make the gap between rich and poor bigger.
20% VAT on fees is chicken feed for the rich and will make no difference in their decision to send their kids to private school. 20% VAT on fees is a big deal for normal people who give up holidays and live frugally in order to afford them. Who is suffering? The little man. Again.

educationnottaxation.org/legal/

My understanding is that VAT won't apply for children with an EHCP

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves unfortunately this isn’t quite correct. The VAT only won’t apply if the LA has named the private school that the child is attending in section i of the EHCP…. in which case the LA would already be paying the fees. My son had an EHCP in a mainstream private school, before he moved to specialist independent. The mainstream private was not named in the EHCP and we therefore paid the fees (and would have had to pay VAT on top if we were still there in the same situation now).

Wow, she's going to smash her target at the rate people are donating!

It doesn't just affect 7-8% of the population. It's an act of economic vandalism which will make everyone in the UK worse off in the long run.

This is one of series of levelling down policies which makes the UK vastly less attractive for investment.

Countries which are serious about economic development are actively seeking to attract British private schools and get them to open because it helps attract the type of citizen and tax payers that drive economic growth.

I advise multiple countries on economic development issues and they are all actively trying to do what the British government is seeking to stop eg attract more private schools and more high earners.

It is NOT a tax on jealousy!! The vast majority of people don’t give a toss about private schools or have any desire to send their children to them.
The reality is that there is no money and why should the already privileged be given an exemption?
As mentioned I was a private school parent and paid thousands of pounds- I chose to opt out of the state system which was freely available to me. Why ex Alu should I be exempt from VAT when that money could be used to help others who need it!!
And don’t start on strain on the state system- yes maybe in the short term but the birth rate is falling significantly and budgets can be adjusted.

The EHCP has to state that the child's needs can only be met in the private school, not all children with an EHCP will be exempt.

As far as I know the Tories & Lib Dems oppose the policy.

If this ladies case succeeds (which previous legal advice suggests is probable) and the VAT isn't implemented, it would prevent the schools & those (mostly v.wealthy) who have paid years upfront from gaining from the windfall of reclaiming input VAT (20% the last 10 years capex.

If she backs down due to the cost of an individual taking on the Govt, then the Govt succeeds (for a short time) to pass it through a finance bill, but not through statute book, (I.e easier to pass with a large majority but legally fraught with difficulty)

Remember the best outcome for private schools is that this policy is implemented for a short window & whilst this policy seems doomed legally (if not from ECHR then from age or disability discrimination), the reality is that the £700m the Tories wasted chasing a similarly performatively cruel (but popular) Rwanda policy (that didnt send a single poor soul to Rwanda) will be dwarfed by chasing this VAT policy & the promises of 6000k new teachers, breakfast clubs for all etc will be shown to be entirely false

Yep, the entitled like to help the similarly entitled.

You are incorrect regarding fees for children with an EHCP - if a private school is named as the only suitable provider then the local authority pay the fees (which will have VAT added but the LA can later claim the VAT back). All other children's private education is VATable regardless of an EHCP. I don't imagine there any many children in non-special schools who have an EHCP naming a private school as the only suitable provider.

Surely the most entitled parents are the wealthy parents that use state schools and don’t want to pay any extra tax to fund those schools but expect the parents not using the schools who are already saving the taxpayer considerable amounts of money to pay instead? That is the very definition of entitled. I am all in favour of extra state school funding but it needs to come from general taxation.

It's good that she's set the initial target at £50k, but suspect she'll raise a lot more than that given there are 29 days to go.

I'm sure if she posts progress and does another fund raise she'll get the support.

For those in the legal know, is £50k likely to cover the full costs?

We fully support this petition because the government have done this only thinking it’s the rich but it’s not. My daughter is on a sports scholarship because she trains from 04.00am-08.00am before school in her sport, they haven’t
thought about these kids on scholarships who are doing sports at this time in the morning, training hard.
Then, my eldest who was not privately educated was failed massively by the state system because she has SEN needs - if I could have afforded private school for her I would have sent her, the state system is a joke. Now she is re-taking many of her GCSEs in college because she got no support from her school for her SENs requirements, while many other kids went skipping off showing their As, Bs, Cs, 8s, 9s etc. I had to listen to a lady on a phone call in public moaning that her daughter only got a 6! Try having a a kid with special needs! If you have a child who has no special needs and you oppose this then that it’s really ignorant and selfish.
I hope the court removes the tax for all the kids Labour has forgotten.

Diverting more SEN children from private to state school will result in more SEN state school children with long term MH issues and who fail to reach their potential as adults. Many become non attenders towards gcse years, with much money, time and other state resource spent trying to get them back into the classes that humiliate them and cannot support them. Their parents are also affected as these children often need to be supervised beyond the age that a non-SEN child needs supervison to stay safe. Many children will always need support navigating adult life by society (and if lucky, family). They may be put off education for life by their experience and not go on into higher ed. For example , children with dyslexia, who struggle reading, writing and processing in their own language, are made (in mainstream state schools) to study at the same pace as children without processing challenges and they spend years “learning” another language but actually learning zero whilst feeling “thick” because they can’t retain or understand the structure of another language . Specialist schools have curriculums that meet the child’s needs and their potential without daily public humiliation.
Many don’t have EHCP because that system itself is discriminatory ( particularly towards low income families because of the cost and knowledge needed to appeal and get what the child needs) and does not recognise the longterm impact that attending classes that do not meet the child’s has on MH as well as reaching educational potential.
it is wrong that these children cannot be adequately supported in state school, but it is equally wrong to make families pay three times (private fees, VAT, EHCP legal team) because they have a child in independent specialist schools without an EHCP. It is wrong that so many children with SEN are already floundering in state school and will receive even less support as more SEN children land in state schools. More SEN children in state schools will adversely effect non-SEN children as resources are diverted to meet SEN obligations. It is wrong to move a child midway through specialist education in a school where their needs are met, into a state school that cannot (because the EHCP process is inadequate and too slow to get them in place in good time for those who the financial support now).
The provision for SEN and how to fund it needs looking at carefully, this sudden change (VAT on specialist SEN fees, starting immediately) is a catastrophe for many children.

Nope.
Those who don't want to pay VAT on luxury goods, yet still expect all the life perks of luxury goods are the entitled ones.

Oh my goodness, you echo my thoughts and feelings (and experience!) on this topic EXACTLY! Thank you for putting this in words. I think the state sector has deteriorated so badly too, but it's not the fault of private schools - I think people are increasingly choosing them because the state offering is dire. But by getting rid of private schools, they just risk making it even worse, with not enough tax generated to fix a toilet, let alone the entire education system.

Is university a luxury? Or private tuition? WHAT about swimming lessons?